While Texas governmental officials have to report on all gifts given them — they don’t have to get too specific …
A Texas official who receives any sum of cash as a gift can satisfy state disclosure laws by reporting the money simply as “currency” without specifying the amount, the Texas Ethics Commission reiterated Monday.
The 5-3 decision outraged watchdog groups and some officials who accused the commission of failing to enforce state campaign finance laws.
“What the Ethics Commission has done is legalize bribery in the state of Texas. We call on the commission to resign en masse,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, who heads Texas Citizen, an Austin-based group that advocates for campaign finance reform.
Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, said the “currency” interpretation would render it “perfectly legal to report the gift of ‘a wheelbarrow’ without reporting that the wheelbarrow was filled with cash.”
To be fair, the commission says it’s hamstrung by poorly written law.
“The question here is whether the description of a gift of cash of over $250 is required to include the value of the gift,” the Ethics Commission opinion said in part. “The term ‘description’ is not defined in Chapter 572 of the Government Code, nor is it defined anywhere else in the Government Code.”
“In our opinion, the requirement to describe a gift of cash or cash equivalent may be satisfied by including in the description the following: ‘currency,’ or a description of the gift, such as ‘check’ or ‘money order,’ as appropriate,” the ruling stated.
This was the second time the commission ruled on the issue of cash gift disclosures. In March, it ruled that a gift of two checks for $100,000 could be listed simply as “checks.”
Legislators and the governor say they’ll fix all that next session. Unless, of course, someone offers them enough “currency” gifts …
(via ThisIsTrue)