With Transparency, There's Room to Improve
During a 2011 legislative debate over payday lenders, state Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston, went to the podium in the House to make the case for those businesses against a phalanx of reformers lined up to regulate them.
A lot of people who had nothing to do with the issue — lobbyists and tourists who were just watching for the sport of it — were astonished that a lawmaker would do what Elkins did.
See, he’s in the payday lending business. And he was at the front of the House making an argument on behalf of his industry — on behalf of himself ...
Comments (3)
Jim Vance
I strongly believe that all filings required under the Ethics Commission rules and governing legislation for ALL entities required to make them (particularly local-issue PACs), should be posted online through a secure, self-verifying mechanism linked to a publicly-accessible and -searchable database. This is the 21st Century, after all -- if the people involved with interest groups and PACs which are required to fill out paper forms and submit them to the Ethics Commission or file them with local County Clerks claim ignorance of the basics in how to use a computer or access the Internet, the term "bald-faced lie" isn't strong enough.
Healthy Texan
You guys not Representative Elkins arguing against regulations for business in which he is involved and yet I have never read anything from the Tribune regarding physicians arguing against allied health professionals that would potentially cut into their business. Is it not the same? Physicians for years have been able to keep APRNs, chiropractors, optometrists, and others, under their thumbs, further limiting access to care for patients and driving up costs for patients, all while keeping their income high. Why do you hold Elkins to a higher standard than you do the physicians in the legislature? Hypocritical if you ask me.
HB Tucker
If lawmakers allow this, what will the media, and specifically the Tribune, do with this informationit? They will distort it and use it in a way that smacks of Marxist class warfare---suggest that being successful, somehow shameful, corrupt. This is the new weapon in the Liberal arsenal.