"Imagine a retreat at a swank Wisconsin resort, where elected officials are wined and dined by corporate lobbyists, have their travel and accommodations paid, have activities for their families and their child-care subsidized, and are given tickets to major league ball games and elite parties by corporate lobbyists with business before the legislature.
These activities would be banned if they took place in the state of Wisconsin, because our state has some of the strongest ethics laws in the nation. Our gift ban prohibits legislators from even taking a cup of coffee from a lobbyist. But if you export the legislators and the lobbyists to out-of-state resorts under the rubric of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), it has been permitted.
It is time for Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board to take another look at this situation."
