By: E&P Staff Twenty of the 50 states "failed" in a survey of financial-disclosure requirements of state legislators, according to rankings released by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) Thursday.
Since 1999, CPI has from time to time been reporting on state lawmaker-disclosure requirements, and ranking the states based on a 43-question survey that measures public access to information on legislators' employment, investments, personal finances, property holdings, or other activities outside the legislature.
CPI studies state laws and disclosure forms to complete the survey, and ranks the answers on a scale with a maximum score of 100 points, indicating the highest degree of disclosure. A score of less than 60 points is considered a failing grade of F. CPI last surveyed the states in 2006, and found that 24 had grades of F.
Among the states that received failing grades in the latest survey are Illinois, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota.
There were also positive surprises, said CPI's Caitlin Ginley.
Louisiana, which was ranked 44th of 50 states in 2006, was ranked first this year. CPI said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, embarrassed by the low score, pushed through a package of ethics laws that require lawmakers to report all outside financial interests, the first time that was required in the state.
Louisiana scored 94.5 points.
Also sharing A grades with Louisiana were Washington and Hawaii.
Tied for the bottom of the ranking, each with a score of zero, were Michigan, Vermont and Idaho, which require no financial disclosure at all of lawmakers.
The complete rankings are available on CPI's Web site,
here.
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