State gets a 'D' on financial disclosure

The Baltimore Sun

Maryland gets a grade of "D" when it comes to the information governors are required to provide about their finances, according to a national watchdog group.

The Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based nonprofit dedicated to making the nation's institutions more transparent, gave the state a marginal rating of 62.5 on a 100-point scale measuring how extensively governors are required to report their personal finances and how accessible those records are to the public.

Leah Rush, the center's director of state projects, said full disclosure allows people to know whether elected officials are acting in the public's interest or in their own.

"Getting this information out in the public domain is an important function as far as gaining the public's trust in their government to be open about all the different hats public officials wear," she said.

The only state to get an "A" was Washington, which scored a 94.5. Four states -- Michigan, Idaho, Utah and Vermont -- require no disclosure from their governors and scored "0," worse than an "F."

Maryland ranked 27th among the 50 states surveyed in the amount of financial reporting required. Maryland's one distinction among the 46 states with disclosure laws is that it is the only one in which a citizen is required to appear in person to the state ethics commission to get a copy of the report.

Twenty-two states, including Pennsylvania and Delaware, make the forms available on the Internet.

Maryland also falls down in the rankings based on the level of detail required for a governor's outside employment -- in some other states, governors report the amount of their outside income and provide more detail about what their outside work entailed.

Generally, Maryland requires less information about the governor's family than top-rated states do. Maryland does not require the governor to disclose his or her spouse's investments and real property holdings -- it does not technically require the governor even to disclose the spouse's name.

Maryland also loses points for the degree of disclosure it requires for affiliations with corporations. The state generally only requires disclosure by officials if the company does business with the state.

Complete state-by-state rankings are available at www. publicintegrity.org. The Web site includes electronic copies of financial disclosure forms from governors and other state officials, but the Maryland information has not been updated since the 2006 election.

The forms are available at the state Ethics Commission's office in Annapolis. O'Malley's 11-page form will set you back $2.20 in copying fees.

However, it does not reveal much about him that was not already well-known.

His only real estate holding, owned jointly with his wife, District Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley, is the family's home on Walther Avenue in Baltimore. (Since the form was filed in May, the family has sold the house, but the closing has not taken place.)

The governor did not list any interest in stocks or with companies doing business with the state, nor does he list any gifts.

O'Malley did report his employment by Walt Disney Pictures as a member of the Screen Actors Guild -- he received some residual checks in 2005 from his appearance in the film Ladder 49. ("I played 'Mayor,' he notes on the form.) Both checks, as well as an honorarium from a speech, went to charity.

The governor also noted that he and his former band, O'Malley's March, used to play paying gigs at Baltimore bars.

"All are regulated by the Baltimore City healht [sic] Department and Liquor Board, as well as various state agencies," he wrote.

andy.green@baltsun.com

Copyright © 2021, The Baltimore Sun, a Baltimore Sun Media Group publication | Place an Ad
72°