Study doesn't worry legislators

The Center for Public Integrity says state legislators are teetering on the ethical divide - but N.C. lawmakers call it doing their job.

Members of the N.C. General Assembly and higher education officials are skeptical of a report released Monday by CPI, a public watchdog group, which states that 7 percent of legislators could benefit directly from their votes on educational matters.

The report states that lawmakers who sit on the legislature's education committee and have economic ties to universities are faced with a conflict of interest.

"This is absolutely not true," said N.C. Sen. Vernon Malone, D-Wake. "I see no conflict of interest at all."

The survey examined the income sources of 6,500 lawmakers in 47 states. It found that almost 500 lawmakers or their spouses have a financial stake in higher education.

The report detailed instances in some states in which legislators did not disclose that they had financial interests in legislation before casting votes.

"We want to show you how the laws should work," said Susan Schaab, CPI's associate director for state projects. "It is the people's job to monitor legislators when they vote."

Schaab said that the organization is not an advocacy group and that the purpose of the report is to have the academic world and media look at lawmakers' votes to determine if there are patterns of corruption.

"We are not trying to pinpoint one person. We want to take the window dressing off ethic laws."

But Travis Reindl, director of state policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, said the report lacks substance and that it tries to make something out of an issue that does not exist.

Reindl said that just because law-makers or their spouses have ties to higher education, people should not assume that corruption exists. "We have to be careful about the 'where there is smoke, there is fire' belief."

In North Carolina, all legislators have different jobs since they serve in a part-time legislature.

Rep. Earline Parmon, D-Forsyth, said legislators have allegiances to different state universities because they graduated from them.

"There is always a perception that we have ties to a particular college," she said. "But my colleagues have the integrity to excuse themselves if there was a conflict."

Conflict of interest laws are designed stop corruption before it happens. But Calvin Mackenzie, a professor of government at Colby College, said disclosure laws aren't always effective. "I have never seen any case where financial disclosure laws have prevented a legislator from corruption."

Mackenzie added that it is the responsibility of a legislator to deem what is a possible conflict of interest. "It is their ethical obligation to decide if they want to participate in a vote."

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.