A few years ago, the Fiesta Bowl scandal came to light, and with it, all the trips, tickets and other freebies. There was some thought at the time that lawmakers would work to close those loopholes, to make sure nothing like that happened again. They did not, but now, there is a bill before the legislature that would ban free tickets to sports and entertainment events for lawmakers. State Sen. Bob Worsley, a Mesa Republican, is one of its sponsors.
After an investigation into the Fiesta Bowl scandal, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery decided he could not prosecute any of the lawmakers who had taken the gifts, because state laws dealing with those sorts of things are inconsistent. He then suggested some proposed fixes, none of which have since become law.
Senate Bill 1060 has cleared a Senate committee and is awaiting debate in the full chamber, but some critics say it will not make much of a difference and may make matters worse. Sam Wercinski is the executive director of the Arizona Advocacy Network.
