JACKSON - Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, not long ago the head of Washington's top lobbying firm, lists his "blind trust" as the source of more than $2,500 in personal income in his state ethics financial disclosure statement.
One problem with that: The state doesn't have a law defining or regulating blind trusts.
"There's no such animal," says Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, a certified public accountant and nationally recognized investment counselor.
When the Democratic-controlled Mississippi House last week debated and then passed, 64-43, a bill amending the 1980 state Ethics Commission law to require disclosure of investments held in trusts, Barbour people almost panicked.
So much so, before the House had voted on the bill, e-mails were flowing from the governor's office to lawmakers saying the bill would "defeat the purpose of a blind trust" and quoting a 2004 Clarion-Ledger editorial that commended him for putting his financial interests in a blind trust.
Mind you, Barbour's name had not been mentioned in the House debate, but everyone seemed to know who the bill was aimed at. The vote virtually followed party lines.
The measure was floor-managed by Rep. Jamie Franks, D-Mooreville, who happens to be running for lieutenant governor. Franks didn't call Barbour's name but said that "the people need to know where investment income is coming from" in public officials' economic interest statements.
Key new language in the House-passed bill would amend the state ethics law to require for the first time disclosure of sources of "gross income … paid to a trustee or trust" in excess of the $2,500 for the preceding year.
This writer had pointed out in a November 2006 column that unlike his recent predecessors in the governor's office (especially Kirk Fordice, the last previous Republican governor), Barbour has not made public his federal income tax return.
Barbour made a fortune in the 1990s peddling influence on Capitol Hill in Washington during the peak of Republican domination of both ends of Congress. He had founded Barbour, Griffith, Rogers that became what Capital-watchers called the most influential and lucrative lobby firm in Washington. He resigned as president and CEO to run for Mississippi governor in 2003.
The key question about Barbour's present financial interests is whether or not he retained a stake in the lobby firm. And, does he still receive income from it? If he disclosed his federal income tax return, we'd know.
Supposedly, as his propagandists maintain, he sold his stock in it when he became governor. Why, then one must logically ask, does the firm still bear his name?
A widely circulated Washington business publication, O'Dwyers PR Daily, said in a 2004 article about the restructuring of BGR that Barbour, by then Mississippi's governor, had put his share in the firm in a blind trust.
"If you know what's in a blind trust, then it is not a blind trust," declares Representative Brown. He emphasized that the concept of blind trusts is written in federal law, but, he adds, "Mississippi does not have a blind trust act." Some states do have such a law, he said.
"I'm not out to get Haley Barbour," the Jackson lawmaker said, "but I do care if he has a conflict of interest." The House-passed measure was not his bill, Brown added, "but it is a good sunshine bill."
Where Barbour's possible financial stake in BGR becomes of special interest to Mississippians is when he vetoes a bill to raise the pitifully low state tax on cigarettes, since it is known that tobacco giant P. Lorillard is one of BGR's major clients. BGR reported earning $18.3 million in 2005.
The immediate press reaction when the House passed the blind trust regulatory measure last week was that it stood little chance of winning approval in the Senate, where Republicans hold sway. And if it did pass, said reports, Barbour's veto pen would be waiting.
That's troubling. First, how can Barbour get away with having vetoed the tobacco tax increase, and then get away with nullifying legislation which would force him to shed light on who puts money in the "Haley R. Barbour Blind Trust"?
Mississippians are in a position of being duped into blindly accepting what our state's leader tells us, or doesn't tell us, about his own financial interests that may be at odds with the public interest.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan's famous line: "Mr. Barbour, tear down this wall of secrecy about your personal income."
