Scott Holcomb Update: 5K Next Saturday & Ethics News

I want to let you know about an event I'm co-sponsoring in Tucker. "Beat the Badge" 5k Road Race starts at 9 a.m. on Sept. 15, 2012 at the DeKalb County Police Headquarters, 1960 W. Exchange Place. It’s for a great cause – to raise money for the DeKalb Police Alliance, and it’s a great event.  My wife Kathleen and I ran this race last year and thought it was terrific. 

You can register for the race at active.com or at the DeKalb Police site.  I hope to see you all at the starting line.

ETHICS:

A few weeks ago, I announced my support for House Speaker David Ralston's promise to . I am pleased that the Speaker has expressed his commitment to change the way business is done in the Georgia General Assembly. The people of Georgia spoke very clearly on July 31 and Republicans and Democrats agreed on the need for reform.

Every voter wants to know that legislators at the General Assembly are working on behalf of the people and not for the benefit of their own pocketbooks, frequent flyer accounts, or stomachs. Ending all lobbyist gifts is an important step in restoring public trust in government. The amount of money that lobbyists spend on elected officials is simply astonishing. I am delighted with the seriousness of the Speaker's proposal and I will be very happy to co-sponsor legislation to this effect. I would like to see the law ban overseas trips, weekend getaways to fancy resorts, golf outings, sports tickets, and even meals.

As any economist will tell you, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Legislators receive per diem from Georgia's taxpayers, so they should pay for their own meals from now on.

Speaker Ralston has promised to convene a study group to examine other states' best practices regarding gift bans. The group should get started right away so that legislation can be ready to go on day one of the next legislative session. The solution is really quite simple so it should not take long to study, draft, and implement the changes. To that end, the new law should go into effect on the day it is signed by Governor Deal.

I also urge the formation of a study group to enhance the enforcement powers of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission as part of the reform effort. These changes have the potential to make things better. I will finish my first term in January and I was amazed at how things 'work' at the Capitol. Reform is long overdue and while these measures won't fix all the problems at the Gold Dome, they should make for better policy making.