Legal Filings

Legal Filings

Ethics Watch’s 2010 Ethics and Transparency Legislation Review

In a first-of-its-kind review of legislature votes on ethical issues, Ethics Watch today released Ethics & Transparency: 2010 Legislation in Review, revealing how the Colorado legislature stands on issues critical to a more ethical, transparent and accountable state government.

“Sometimes just enforcing existing law isn’t enough – legislative action is also required to address evolving challenges to ethical and transparent government,” said Ethics Watch Director Luis Toro. “That is why Ethics Watch compiled this legislative review: to highlight the ethics and transparency efforts of our state legislature on critical issues, including the campaign finance system that governs election spending and the sunshine laws that help the public understand how their state is functioning.”

For this scorecard, Ethics Watch selected the nine most relevant bills that fall into three categories: Transparency, Accountability, and Campaign Integrity. Bills listed in the Transparency category improve Coloradans’ access to information about government operations. Bills in the Accountability category strengthen ethical standards of conduct and/or the mechanisms through which such standards are enforced. Bills in the Campaign Integrity category improve the disclosure system for spending to influence the results of Colorado elections.

“The 2010 session was a good one for transparency, accountability and campaign integrity bills,” said Toro. “All but one of the bills listed in this review were passed, and as of the date of this release, none have been vetoed. And perhaps most positively, several of the bills enjoyed broad bipartisan support.”

Click Here to Read Legislative Review

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