What!?! New Jersey #1 in Laws to Fight Corruption
Survey praises state's laws on open records, campaign finance disclosures, public integrity.
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A new study ranks New Jersey tops in the nation for its procedures for uncovering corruption.
In a report released Monday, the Center for Public Integrity rated all 50 states in terms of their laws for public records access, requiring reports of campaign donations, accountability of all three branches of government, state budget transparency, civil service procedures, purchasing procedures, lobbyist disclosure, audits, pension fund management, ethics bodies, insurance regulation and redistricting.
"Keep in mind we're not measuring cases of corruption, but the systems in place to prevent it, and encourage openness and transparency in government," said Gordon Witkin, CPI's managing editor.
The report is likely a surprise for many state residents, who are accustomed to a steady drumbeat of arrests of state and local officials for misuse of office. That includes the arrests of 44 people in 2009 for corruption and money laundering.
But the New Jersey's history of ethically-challenged politicos goes back much further, at least as far as a colonial governor, as the Wall Street Journal reported after the 2009 arrests.
Editor's Note: This article appears on multiple Patch Sites throughout Morris and Sussex counties. The comments posted may not be by residents of your town.
V
7:48 am on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
That fat, evil Gover... what, what?! This is not a Christie bashing thread?!
John smith
8:04 am on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Simply because laws are in place does not mean they will do anything, nor be enforced. The entire system is rotten to the core, you can't fix it by removing a few bad parts. Wake up sheeple, start voting from the rooftops
Brian Rutter
11:03 am on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Basically, we have a report here that says "Captain Smith, we did not investigate the possibility of holes under the water line from hitting the iceberg, but you get our top rating because the deck chairs are arranged perfectly." My comments are not a shot at the current administration, but at the present state of government as a whole in this country.
The problem with public corruption is obvious. We have a system where government officials are in a position to steer public policy in a way to benefit certain citizens over other citizens. This creates incentives for those who might benefit to do what they can to influence the policies in their favor, whether that be by perfectly legal and moral expressions of opinion, by perfectly legal, but questionably moral direction of campaign contributions, or by totally illegal and immoral bribes.
While the measures referred to in the study can be useful, the basic truth is that we will not reduce public corruption until we remove the incentives. There are far too many regulations, enacted on extremely dubious rationales of "protecting the public", which cause more problems than they solve, and put some officials in the position of picking winners and losers.
Get the government out of the economy, and public corruption will wither away to a minor annoyance like bid-rigging on public works, which is much more easily monitored.
CR
7:45 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
The only thing this report proves is that NJ is the best at skirting, hiding, circumventing and just plain ignoring the rules