Paul Sund, spokesman for Henry, said Friday the governor has been talking to members of the ethics panel and others about the commission's funding problems.
The Legislature approved a $150,000 increase in the agency's budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, but $50,000 of that was for an incompatible computer program used by the Federal Election Commission, state officials said.
On May 20, the Ethics Commission met and directed staff to prepare legal papers for a lawsuit against the Legislature.
Ethics Commissioner John Raley of Ponca City said the Legislature is required by the Oklahoma Constitution to adequately fund the agency.
Ethics commissioners said the FEC software lawmakers want the commission to purchase will eventually cost up to $1 million and be a waste of taxpayers' money. They said it would hamper the ability of the agency to keep aggregate totals of campaign accounts.
Henry said a lawsuit against the Legislature is "the wrong approach," while acknowledging the agency has unmet funding needs.
Among other things, the Ethics Commission sought extra money to hire additional investigators. The panel has only one investigator since its inception and the Legislature has repeatedly turned down requests to beef up the ethics staff.
One possibility for the governor is use of the line-item veto to strike language requiring spending $50,000 for the computer program, freeing up that money for other Ethics Commission needs.
Raley contends that the Legislature can't mandate how the Ethics Commission can spend its money, since it is a constitutional body.
Some lawmakers are upset with the commission for adopting a new rule that reduces from $300 to $100 the amount of money lobbyists may spend on election officials. Another rule outlaws the practice of political action committees transferring money to other PACs.
The rules will take effect July 1.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
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This story has been covered several times before, but it has NEVER been disclosed who holds the copyright on this software, possible political ties between political sponsors and the copyright holder, or even the name of the software. Hmmm.
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Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.