Ethics reform can
lift state's bottom line
From thnt Online,
November 30, 2007
Disgust. According to a new
survey, that is the overwhelming sentiment of small business owners when it
comes to the ethical standards that state government applies to itself and its
members. More troubling, the study conducted by the Prudential Business
Ethics Center at Rutgers University concludes that the failure of lawmakers to
effectively police themselves and government workers in general is hurting New
Jersey's economy, pushing it farther down the road toward demise.
Legislators ought to pay heed. But their actions and comments of the past
several years suggest that they won't — a building disaster for both the state
and its residents, and their futures. But there is sound advice and a
strong course of action suggested in the report.
Raymond Bramucci, director of the center, noted: "It's self-evident that
the special interests and self-interests consistently prevail over public virtue
and the citizen's agenda."
The Democrat, who has worked for Gov. James J. Florio, U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley,
D-N.J., and President Clinton, went on to detail all of the steps that Trenton
must take to right the people's ship.
Those long-overdue initiatives include: a total ban on pay to play, the
system of awarding lucrative no-bid government contracts to political
contributors; a uniform ethics code, and a bipartisan panel fashioned after the
federal government's 9/11 Commission. He suggests the latter is needed to
identify and cure all of the ethical problems that stand in the way of cleaner,
better, more effective and more efficient government in New Jersey. And
he's right. The increased cost of government services caused by pay to
play alone is a key example.
Pay to play inflates the cost of government because contractors purposely build
the cost of campaign contributions into the cost of their work. The lack
of competition for no-bid contracts drives costs higher, too, as work is doled
out not to those who can do it best but to those who can give the most.
And when merit is not part of the equation for the performance of government
work, it's not just the bottom line that suffers, it's the citizens trust in
government that erodes as well.
Entrepreneurs' faith in government fades, too.
"Businessmen and community leaders believe that merit becomes the least
important thing, candor becomes a lost art," Bramucci said.
Those remarks are reassuring. Some might even call them surprising.
So often it seems the popularly held view of business is that its leaders want a
system of government to which they can buy their way in, using money to purchase
favor. This report dispels that notion. What the vast majority of
those who were surveyed desire is a clear and level playing field where
performance — and not payola — cinches the deal.
Bramucci said he is hopeful lawmakers will study the report and take action.
This page wishes so, too. New Jersey's highly taxed and heavily regulated
landscape is the biggest reason why commerce is fleeing the state. But the
gnawing sense that the Legislature is unwilling to create a fair and honest
climate in which to do business is a huge factor, too.
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