A former House Transportation Committee chairman's quick flip from the legislature to Matty Moroun's payroll doesn't sit well with the Lansing State Journal's editorial board, which says: "It's time for reform."
Former state lawmaker Paul Opsommer's decision to take a job with a company owned by Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel "Matty" Moroun should leave voters with cynical thoughts. They should translate their concern into pressing current lawmakers to pass ethics laws that keep outgoing lawmakers from becoming lobbyists without a cooling-off period of at least a year.
Opsommer (right), a Republican who had represented the DeWitt area in the House, reached the end of his term-limited time last year. Barely a month after leaving office, he announced last week that he’s taken a governmental affairs position with CenTra Inc., a Moroun family transportation interest, where he will work on policy efforts on both state and federal levels.
The state capital's newspaper believes top executive branch officials and lawmakers should be barred "from jumping directly into lobbying jobs or industry jobs in areas over which they had oversight, such as insurance, health care or transportation.
