Rep. Steven Jackson (Allison Allsop)
Freshman state legislators typically promise to bring back more money to their districts or to pursue broader policy.
But the very first two bills Rep. Steven Jackson, D-Shreveport, authored during his first regular in the Louisiana Legislature had an unusual target for a new lawmaker: Louisiana’s Board of Ethics.
Jackson’s first bill reduces how often elected officials have to file their personal financial disclosure forms with the state ethics agency. His second one dramatically cuts the fines lobbyists have to pay if they file paperwork late. Both became law this month.
Jackson also successfully got his colleagues in the Louisiana House of Representatives to sponsor a study of the state’s ethics and campaign finance laws and produce a report on the topic by next April.
His interest in the ethics board follows five years of angry exchanges between Jackson and ethics staff over financial penalties he has accrued while running for office.