Ethics Disclosure- Lawmakers could be engaging in a game of political chicken
by Bill Barrow - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

BATON ROUGE -- The issue of more personal financial disclosure by state lawmakers and other public officials continued its bruising course through the Legislature, with one measure clearing a Senate committee Wednesday and a competing bill winning approval in the full upper chamber.

In a 29-8 vote, the Senate approved a much-amended proposal that would require legislators, all local officeholders and candidates for those offices to disclose their federal income tax returns each year. Senate Bill 157, sponsored by Sen. Rob Marionneaux Jr., D-Livonia, would also bar legislators from entering into professional service contracts with the state or any of its political subdivisions, such as state agencies, parishes, municipalities, school boards or hospital districts.

(T)wo House members speculated that lawmakers could be engaging in a game of political chicken, refusing to kill proposals that few of them like, while quietly hoping to watch them die at some future step in the legislative process.