State Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, has fired his first shot in support of ethics for the upcoming legislative session.
His Senate Resolution 7, filed this week, would ask voters to change the Georgia Constitution with a mandate to fund the state’s ethics commission. In essence, the proposal seeks to create a permanent funding source for Georgia’s watchdog over lobbyists and lawmakers.
SR 7 would do that by setting a fixed rate — 0.00025 percent of the annual state budget — to make the commission less susceptible to budget cuts by the very lawmakers it polices.
“It’s not appropriate in my opinion for those being regulated by an agency to determine how that agency is funded,” McKoon said.
The resolution requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to pass. It does not have the endorsement of Senate leaders, meaning it probably has little chance of becoming law.
Instead, it gives McKoon an opportunity to keep building a case in the General Assembly to change ethics rules governing lawmakers and lobbyists.
McKoon was among only a handful of lawmakers last year to push for changes in the state’s ethics laws, including a $100 cap on lobbyist spending. The effort failed.
This year, however, Democratic and Republican voters overwhelmingly supported a cap in nonbinding referendums held during the July 31 primaries.
Study committees in both the House and the Senate are now considering the issue and are expected to issue their own proposals.
Senate Democrats last year proposed creating a permanent funding source for the commission, at 0.01 percent of the state budget, and also said members of the ethics commission should be appointed by a panel of judges, not the governor.
The session begins Jan. 14.
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