When “shining a light” is a blinding distraction.

by Rob Roper

Vermont ranks low when it comes to political ethics accountability. According to the Coalition for Integrity’s S.W.A.M.P. (States With Anti-Corruption Measures for Public Officials), Vermont ranks in the bottom ten nationally. The Center for Public Integrity gives us a D-. The general reasoning behind the bad grades is we have few rules governing our politicians’ ethical boundaries, and the ones we have don’t have much teeth to ‘em. Shocker, our elected officials are loathe to pass laws that they might find themselves running afoul of with penalties that they might have to pay.

What they are not loath to do is LOOK LIKE they’re doing something about ethics, and this year it’s with a bill (S.291) that would require legislators to “…file disclosures detailing costs and associated information for any travel made in the course of the individual’s official capacity or because of the individual’s status that is paid for by any source other than the State or by that person themselves.” Yeah, okay.

The impetus for this bill, sponsored by Senators Tanya Vyhovsky (P/D-Chittenden C), Alison Clarkson (D-Windsor), Martine Gulick (D-Chittenden C), Ruth Hardy (D-Addison), Andrew Perchlik (D/P-Washington), and Becca White (D-Windsor), Vermont’s all-white, chardonnay-sipping version of “The Squad,” came about after five Vermont State Representatives (along with 245 other legislators from all fifty states) took a trip to Israel last September. Pearls were clutched. The usual suspects protested. Calls for resignations were bellowed…. You know the standard, Leftist antisemitic drill.

I level the charge of antisemitism here because last November five Vermont lawmakers visited Taiwan for basically the same reasons (fostering good international relations with a key ally and trade partner) with all expenses paid and we heard not a peep of protest about it. Nobody worried that this might be poking the Chinese Dragon in the eye. Not a single garment was rent on the campuses of Middlebury or UVM. Ironically, two of the Tiawan freebee travelers are sponsors of S.291, White and Clarkson.

Another of the sponsors, Vyhovsky, traveled to Great Britain and Brussels last March to discuss the war in Ukraine with her meals and lodging paid for by her host governments. While she did catch some flak for being absent from her job as a legislator causing delayed votes in the closely divided senate, nobody raised an eyebrow that it might be unethical or politically problematic for her to go to Europe to vent her opinions – not just listen and learn — about supporting a non-NATO, sort-of ally in an active war against one of America’s biggest geo-political rivals following an unjust attack and invasion. Clearly, that is only cause for resignation if you’re visiting The Jews.

But here’s the thing about S.291 in and of itself and regardless of the catalyst that brought it about… who gives a rat’s behind. Vermont doesn’t have a foreign policy that’s going to be influenced by legislators travelling to distant lands on some other nation’s dime. Should they have to file some sort of report on where they went, the purpose of the trip, and what was paid for? Sure. If they’re going to represent our state in an official capacity we, their constituents, should be made aware. But this isn’t really a problem that needs solving at the moment. It’s not going to get that D- grade up to a D, let alone a gentleman’s C.

If you want to solve a transparency problem that needs solving, here’s a suggestion: make legislators file regular reports (basically a weekly timesheet) on all meetings they have with lobbyists outside of official legislative committee hearings. How long they met for, where, and what they discussed. That would be useful information!

There’s a joke – not a joke, really, but a statement of fact accompanied by resigned chuckling – that all the real work done in the State House takes place in the cafeteria. And in the hallways, and in the various eating and drinking establishments around Montpelier, and hotel ballrooms, and basically anyplace outside of public view. What happens on the record in committee rooms and on the chamber floors is theater.

So, as a citizen, wouldn’t it be helpful to know that as your property taxes go up again by double digits your representative was having lunch every day with the hired guns from the VTNEA, and that might just have something to do with it? Or, when pondering all those additional charges to your electric bill that your senator plays golf once a month with a foursome from VPIRG? Worth pondering!

I think that would be infinitely more relevant and interesting to Vermonters than whether or not a lawmaker got a free trip to Taiwan or to Israel or a steak ‘n kidney pudding lunch courtesy of Parliament. But sadly we won’t get such legislation because when it comes to ethics, our politicians actually deserve that D-. S.291 isn’t shining a light so much as throwing up a shiny object to distract us from where the light isn’t being shined.