Integrity Florida Is Exposing Florida’s Corruption

Floridians have reason to be hopeful as the annual session of the state legislature begins on March 5. Bills have been filed that, if passed, would provide historic changes to ethics laws, campaign finance, government transparency and accountability.Governor Rick Scott, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Senate President Don Gaetz, House Speaker Will Weatherford, Minority Leaders Chris Smith in the Senate and Perry Thurston in the House have all demonstrated a welcome level of responsiveness to the people of Florida in their support for a reform agenda.

With help from many of you, Integrity Florida has been able to publish seven research reports in the last year and engage with diverse stakeholders in the statewide reform movement. More than half of our thirty specific research report recommendations have made it into legislation for the 2013 session. Reform bills that we are tracking related to our primary areas of research include the following:

• Ethics reform: SB2, SB4, SB272, SB652, SB926, HB233, HB285, HB287, HB297, HB379, HB381
• Campaign finance reform: SB1382, HB569
• Enterprise Florida transparency and accountability: SB236, SB406, SB446, SB518, SB572, SB1024, HB563, HB641, HB4013, HB7007
• Citizens Property Insurance Corporation oversight: SB386, HB433
• Budget transparency, open contracting and open data: SB908,  SB1004, SB1150, HB1133, HB1261

With your engagement in the upcoming legislative debates, our state has a window of opportunity to move closer to the vision of government in Florida that is the most open, ethical, responsive and accountable in the world.

Best,
Dan

Daniel B. Krassner, Executive Director
Integrity Florida | (850) 321-0432 | dan@integrityfl.org | IntegrityFlorida.org

In Case You Missed It:

Washington Post: “Integrity Florida, a good-government group formed last year, has proposed ending the charade by removing restrictions on donations and requiring that they be disclosed online within 24 hours. The fate of the group’s proposal is worth paying attention to, because it ultimately could shape reform efforts on the federal level as well.”

New York Times: “This month, Integrity Florida, a watchdog group, issued its second report calling into question Enterprise Florida’s effectiveness and criticizing it as lacking transparency.”

Capitol News Service: “Integrity Florida Makes Waves”

Integrity Florida is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute and government watchdog whose mission is to promote integrity in government and expose public corruption.