Honesty in government is the bedrock of democracy. We need to be able to trust that our elected officials will not break the law, and will do what they believe is right for our state. Connecticut has seen too many politicians—both Republican and Democrat—go to jail for corruption (or worse) in the past few years. I firmly believe that we need to strengthen penalties for corruption and set up a system to quickly investigate those accused of wrongdoing.

The General Assembly has had difficulty coming together in the past few weeks on an ethics package. Governor Rell has fortunately taken a lead in pulling together both political parties in the legislature, and both she and I are committed to passing responsible ethics reform legislation before the session is finished on May 7th. Restoring Connecticut citizens’ trust in their government is just too important to let politics stand in the way of passing a good government ethics bill.

So what do I mean when I say “ethics reform”? We cannot stop people from making bad choices. Public corruption goes back to ancient Egyptian and Roman times. But that doesn’t mean we have to tolerate officials who choose to betray the public trust. Connecticut needs to have more education, clear rules of investigation, and strict penalties for corrupt public officials. Specifically, I support:

• Granting judges the authority to revoke government pensions for elected or appointed public officials and state employees convicted of felonies related to their government office.

• Requiring public officials and state employees who witness a bribe to report it or face legal consequences.

• Requiring ethics training for state elected officials, appointed officials and state employees.

• Creating a Bipartisan Standing Committee on Ethics to deal with ethics issues with respect to legislators.

• Prohibiting state officials who lobby legislators from contributing to legislative candidates and giving gifts.

• Prohibiting legislators from serving as the chief elected official of municipalities.

I believe these are bipartisan, common sense reforms that we should implement immediately. While some in the legislature might balk at strengthening the rules around ethics, I agree with Governor Rell that we need to continue to restore faith in Connecticut state government through voting on these reforms.

Connecticut is facing a lot of important issues – growing the economy, protecting our environment, ensuring public safety, lowering taxes, providing a quality education for our children, controlling government spending . . . the list goes on. We cannot hope to be successful in addressing these issues and achieving our goals if Connecticut’s citizens do not trust their government. Passing comprehensive government ethics reform legislation is a good step toward restoring the people’s trust.