February 23, 2010
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News: Sink Calls For Ethics Reform In Florida
Florida's lawmakers are so busy dealing with their political scandals of credit card abuse that there is hardly time to attend to the business of running the state. Alex Sink, Florida's Chief Financial Officer is outraged by the recent discovery of thousands of dollars of questionable credit card transactions by some of the Republican Party's top members. Sink is reaching out to Florida's lawmakers asking for ethic reform. Sink is the Democratic candidate for Governor looking to fill the seat of Charlie Crist who is hoping to win the U.S. Senate election. He presented an 11 point plan that is designed to restore the taxpayers' confidence in the government. Sink's motivation stems from the recent unveiling of credit card abuse by Republican Party members.
Excessive credit card spending by GOP members prompted Sink to take action as he called for a full disclosure of all government card account statements. Numerous individuals, including the Governor himself, have asked the new Chairman of the Florida Republican Party, Senator John Thrasher of St. Augustine, to publicly disclose all party credit card statements. Thrasher refused to cooperate with the requests saying a full investigation will be sufficient and if any illegal activity is discovered, it will be dealt with appropriately.
The plan also aims to ban state employees from accepting gifts from lobbyists, prevent elected officials from participating in the voting process of voting when a personal interest is involved, and provide the Commission on Ethics the authority to launch investigations that would allow them to look into political parties credit card statements. Sink's plans aren't the first to be proposed by some of Florida's political leaders. State Senator Dan Gelber, the Democrat from Miami running for Attorney General and State Senator Paula Dockery, the Republican from Lakeland running for Governor both proposed legislation calling for ethical reform. However, Sink's plan takes it to the next level by asking for more protection for individuals who come forward with information on unethical activity.