Today the Better Government Association (“BGA”) released the 2nd edition of the BGA-Alper Integrity Index.  The Index ranks all fifty states on the strength of their laws that relate to transparency, accountability and limits in government.

This edition of the BGA-Alper Integrity Index rates the fifty states on their performance across five different laws: open records laws; whistleblower laws; campaign finance laws; open meetings laws; and conflict of interest laws.  A full copy of the BGA-Alper Integrity Index is available for free on the BGA’s website at http://www.bettergov.org/.

“The BGA feels that these laws go to the core of responsive and ethical government.  Just as the fifty states compete to see which one is the most business friendly or has biggest population they should also compete to see who has the strictest laws in regard to governmental integrity” said BGA Executive Director Jay Stewart.

Louisiana ranked 5th among all fifty states overall*.  By issue area Louisiana ranked 3rd in open records laws; 2nd in whistleblower laws; 20th in campaign finance laws; 4th in open meetings laws; and 44th in conflict of interest laws.  Despite its number 5 overall ranking, Louisiana achieved a modest 61% overall score.

“Louisiana should be congratulated that it beat out forty-five other states” said Stewart, “however, there is clearly a lot of room for improvement.  If you look at the percentage score, Louisiana received 61%.”

The 2nd edition of the BGA-Alper Integrity Index relies on data compiled through 2007.  Most of the data was collected by the BGA and the BGA created the scoring system for four of the five laws.  The BGA relied on the work of the Center for Public Integrity in regard to conflict of interest laws.

Generally the BGA reviewed the relevant laws in all fifty states and created a scoring system for each law that ran on a 0 to 2 scale with half point increments or a 0 to 4 scale on whole point increments.  The better the law the higher the score.  For the BGA better was usually defined as lower limits, more transparency and higher penalties.   The BGA scored areas of each type of law that were common across all fifty states.    

The BGA-Alper Integrity Index is the only tool that attempts to measure the performance of all fifty states across a number of good government laws.  As with any analytical tool, it can’t measure every variable that impact on government integrity.  However, laws are generally the reference point against which ethical behavior is measured.  By rating the quality of the laws we reviewed it at least gives an indication of how important ethics are to each state.

“We hope that legislators and leaders in Louisiana will use the Integrity Index as a tool to spur reform and upgrade their laws in regard to transparency, accountability and limits.  Better yet, we hope Louisiana comes up with a tough new standard that then becomes the measure against which other states will be judged” said Stewart.

*To score each state’s conflict of interest laws, the BGA relied on the Center for Public Integrity’s ranking of state conflict of interest laws. That ranking has not been updated since 2006.  According, Louisiana’s recent sweeping changes to its conflict of interest laws are not reflected in this edition of the Index.  If Louisiana’s recent changes were scored  its’ overall ranking would rise to number 1 and number 1 in conflict of interest laws.

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The BGA-Alper Index was made possible in part by the generous support of Alper Services.
For more information about Alper Services please visit their website at www.AlperServices.com.