Maryland scored a passing grade for the amount of financial disclosure it requires from its governor and other top officials, according to a report released Wednesday by the Center for Public Integrity in Washington.
But it is now the only state that requires someone seeking the documents to show up at the State Ethics Commission office in Annapolis to view financial disclosure forms for all public officials, said Leah Rush, the director of state projects for the center. Twenty-two states now provide Web access to the forms, and other states will mail, fax or e-mail them.
The center actually has copied and posted forms for Maryland?s top officials and lawmakers on its own Web site, but April filings for current officials have not been posted yet, Rush said.
“State law requires that you have to come in” to review the files, said Robert Hahn, director of the Ethics Commission.
The disclosure forms for Gov. Martin O?Malley, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Attorney General Douglas Gansler reviewed by The Examiner on Wednesday contained little that was not already part of the public record, except for a few items.
On the Public Integrity survey, Maryland ranks 27th in the country with a score of 62.5 out of 100 on a 45-question survey.
Compared with other states, “there is a lot of information” on Maryland?s forms, Rush said, but “compared to the best states, there are quite a few areas that Maryland does not cover.” That includes no description of companies worked for other than the name, and no income ranges for that employment for the official, spouses and dependents.
“We don?t advocate for anything in particular other than public information,” Rush said.
The disclosure forms showed that the principal assets for Maryland?s top elected officials and their wives are their homes and retirement accounts, which are invested mainly in large mutual funds. Their wives all are lawyers and work outside the home.
O?Malley said that last year, he still received residual payments from Walt Disney Pictures through the Screen Actors Guild for his appearance as “mayor” in the film “Ladder 49,” John Travolta?s movie about firefighters in Baltimore.
FRANCHOT FILE
Comptroller Peter Franchot has a second house, an $800,000 summer home on Cape Cod in Orleans, Mass., purchased in 2004. He also has the debts to match, with more than $1.5 million in mortgages on that and his Takoma Park home. Last year, he loaned his campaign $750,000 and as of Dec. 31 still had $522,000 outstanding on mortgages he took out last August.
