The Center for Public Integrity

Kansas is one of 23 states in which an outside ethics agency oversees ethical conduct of state legislators. It is one of 10 of those states where the ethics agency also oversees both personal financial disclosure and campaign finance disclosure for members of the legislature.

Kansas is among the 22 states that established outside oversight of ethical conduct and/or disclosure requirements of legislators in the post-Watergate 1970s.

Of the 32 states that have outside oversight of ethical conduct and/or disclosure requirements for legislators — 23 that cover ethics and disclosure, plus nine that cover disclosure only — Kansas is one of 12 where the legislature appoints at least one commission member. Only three states — California, Hawaii and Massachusetts — have members picked without the input of the legislature.

Budget

Kansas is among 22 states that did approve a budget for its ethics agency exceeding the rate of inflation, or 7 percent, between 1997 and 2000. Those states include Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin. Six state ethics agency budgets — in Arkansas, Georgia, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey and Washington — at least doubled during this time period.

More than half of the nation's state legislatures have no independent oversight of elected legislators' ethical conduct, the Center has found. A survey of state ethics offices reveals that only 23 states have independent commissions that have at least minimal authority to investigate or enforce violations of ethics rules.

In ten of those states, ethics agency heads said the legislature they oversee used the budget writing process to punish their commissions or limit their effectiveness.

In 27 states, there is no independent body to regulate unethical conduct by lawmakers. Four states — Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota and Vermont — have no formal ethics statutes covering conduct of legislators. Seven legislatures, including Michigan, created independent ethics commissions that regulate the conduct of executive and judicial branch officials, but exempt the state legislature. Another nine created independent agencies to oversee disclosure laws for the legislature. However, they do little beyond collecting the disclosure forms. Eight states added oversight of legislative ethics to the responsibilities of the secretaries of state or attorneys general.

In most of the 27 states without independent oversight, lawmakers regulate themselves through a committee process, similar to that of the U.S. Congress. The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct and the Senate Select Committee on Ethics — both of which are comprised exclusively of members of Congress — are charged with reviewing and interpreting ethics rules for members. They also enforce those rules.

"It's very difficult for a non-independent, partisan group to be able to judge their peers. I don't think it works at the federal level and I don't think it works in the states that have that," said Alan Plofsky, director of the Connecticut State Ethics Commission.