Georgia the Most Corrupt State in America

The following is excerpted from the Atlanta Business Chronicle, March 22, 2012:

Georgia is the most corrupt state in the nation, according to 24/7 Wall St., citing a report by the Center for Public Integrity."The Center for Public Integrity's report examined issues concerning accountability and ethics in each state government. States were graded on 330 separate metrics, which were grouped into 14 major categories. Overall grades are based on the average grades in the major categories, which included lobbying disclosure, political financing, internal auditing, ethics enforcement agencies and redistricting," said 24/7 Wall St.Georgia received failing grades across the board.

From 24/7 Wall St:


GeorgiaOverall grade: F (49%) (Note: highest grade 100%)

Public access to information: F

Legislative accountability: F

Political financing: F

Ethics enforcement agencies: F

"Georgia has the worst levels of corruption risk and lack of accountability of any state in the country. The state scored a D or worse in 12 of the 14 categories. The state's biggest problem is the absence of a strong ethics enforcement agency. Republican governor Sonny Perdue managed to get an ethics bill through the legislature, but by the time it passed, his proposals to ban gifts to state workers and clearly define appropriate campaign spending had been stripped out. According to State Integrity reporter Jim Walls, while Georgia has provisions to prevent certain kinds of corruption in campaign finance and lobbying, the state is full of unaddressed loopholes and lax enforcement. About 2,000 Georgia officials, including one in five sitting legislators, have failed to pay penalties for filing their disclosures late, or not at all.'"

It just makes me proud to be a Georgian!