Last week, Kentucky received a D+ rating from the Center of Public Integrity as part of the nonprofit’s annual State Integrity Investigation.
Freelance journalist and Murray State University Professor Ryan Alessi authored the commonwealth’s report. He speaks with Todd Hatton on Sounds Good about what that rating fully means.
Alessi says work first began in December 2014. He says he spent about four months conducting interviews, researching and working through news clips.
“There were 245 different pieces to this investigation - some were about laws, some were about how the laws had been enforced and whether they’d been violated,” Alessi said. “And so I had to find evidence about whether they were violated or whether the laws were in place, and so it was pretty detailed and extensive.”
Citing the corruption cases of former Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer and former Democratic Rep. W. Keith Hall, Alessi says it’s unclear whether ethical issues stop there or go deeper within state politics.
He says there may be an enforcement gap as the commonwealth’s ethics agencies, such as those that oversee the executive and legislative branches, possess only four employees each. The former of those two cover about 30,000 employees alone.
Despite the low rating, Kentucky received some recognition, specifically for its election finance laws. Alessi says those regulations have done a strong job of staying ahead of campaign finance structure trends, and the registry of election finance itself has kept a vigilant eye.
Overall, only three states nationwide received higher than a D+ rating. Alessi says this is concerning as public distrust in government grows.
“As mad as people get about some things, I wish I would see more frustration from folks to write their legislators and say ‘Hey, you all have got to do something to make sure our government is held accountable,’” Alessi said.
