Legislators can’t serve 2 masters

Conflicts of interest have existed for a long time. “No man can serve two masters,” Jesus said: “for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”

Gov. Bob Riley offered a contemporary example this month when he announced legislation that would extend a double-dipping ban beyond two-year colleges.

“Any time elected officials are allowed to draw two state salaries, they essentially become taxpayer-funded lobbyists for the government agency they work for,” the governor said. “That’s wrong. It’s a conflict of interest and it must be stopped.”

Responding to a scandal, the State Board of Education has already decided to stop its two-year college employees from serving in the Legislature.

Now Gov. Riley wants to make it against the law for any employee of a state agency, four-year university or K-12 school to serve as a legislator or statewide elected official. He also wants to forbid legislators and other elected state officials from contracting for work with a state agency or public education institution.

Cynics (or realists) have declared his plan dead on arrival in the Legislature — and it probably is, unless the public demands that this good legislation get consideration.

Theoretically, we need to have people making laws who possess expertise and experience in the matters they’re dealing with. An educator, for example, ought to know what the schools need. The problem is that when that legislator stands to gain financially from bills that are supposed to improve schools, he can’t be objective. He can’t put aside the potential benefit for himself and his employer.

If having educators in the Legislature meant better education, we’d have world-class schools. Instead, we have better salaries and benefits for teachers. They needed and deserved those salaries and benefits, but many other education needs have gone wanting. And, as the two-year-college scandal has shown, some legislators have simply taken advantage of their positions to pad their own pockets.

Citizens must demand that lawmakers give Gov. Riley’s proposal a fair look. It may have some flaws, but it ought to be debated openly in a climate that reduces the opportunities for selfish interests to kill it.