State Rep. Jones rails on Jindal's House Bill 1

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s lead legislation passed at the end of the special session is “onerous,” state Rep. Sam Jones told the St. Mary Parish Council this week.

Jones, a Democrat from Franklin, was the only lawmaker who voted against House Bill 1, which calls for income disclosure for politicians and their spouses, as well as the income and expenditures of local and state appointed boards like Sewer Districts and Water Boards.

Jones represents District 50, a territory that spans south from Jeanerette to Berwick, and east to Stephensville. He said that although he was happy to support most of Jindal’s reform package, he could not support HB 1.

“Our problem in this state is the real corruption that goes on — bribe taking and kick-back schemes — that’s what we need to enforce,” Jones said. “I don’t know if it’s going to take 5,000 ethics police to chase everybody down and watch everything we do, but this bill went a bit far, and that’s why I voted against it.

“Some of my legislative friends told me later they wish they would have voted against it, but they were afraid.”

Jones said he believed the ethics bill will be changed repeatedly in the upcoming regular session.

The Franklin lawmaker said the disclosure required is quite extensive. It requires politicians and candidates to disclose assets, and liabilities in some cases, and list job and earnings descriptions of not only themselves, but their spouses.

“I don’t have a problem reporting my income, but I call this bill an invasion of privacy,” Jones said. “I think Thomas Jefferson, if he were here, would throw up on the invasion of privacy that goes along with this bill. But it is what it is, the law passed, and we’ll see.”

On a related topic, he told the council that if they have a board or commission that expends more than $1 million, that board will have to fill out required disclosure forms, even it was created by the Parish Council.

“How many people are going to do that, and then later, want to continue to hold their board seats?” Jones said. “Frankly, we’re having a tough time now getting people to work on the boards, and I don’t know what this is going to bring to the process.”

The fifth article of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution gives one the right to privacy, so unless you have violated the law or recently broken it, I don’t see why you need to give up that information because you want to serve on a board or commission, or your trying to do something good for your community.”

According to regulations in HB 1, Jones said elected politicians at any level must complete disclosure forms 30 days before qualifying for an upcoming election no matter what office they seek.

“Think about that,” he said. “Think about the chilling effect that is going to have on people wanting to get involved and work in government.”

Jones said violations to not completing disclosure forms include a 14-day warning, a minimum fine of $1,000, a maximum fine of $10,000 or six months in jail.

“The state Legislature has now created a new class of crime called Failure to Report,” he said.

Ironically, Jones said the Louisiana Superdome Commission, “which oversees millions and millions, maybe billions of dollars, was left totally out of House Bill No. 1.”

Jones said he and state Rep. Fred Mills Jr., D-St. Martinville, tried to get the Superdome Commission added, but were ruled out of order because it wasn’t on the governor’s call.