House Speaker Lawerence Denney had a favorable reaction today to legislative Democrats' announcement that they'll put forth three more ethics bills and they'd like to work with Republicans on them. "I think that's wise," Denney said. The GOP speaker said he'd be amenable to having the bipartisan working group that already is slated to work on legislation to create an independent state ethics commission examine the Democrats' three other proposals as well: Financial disclosure, a one-year wait before public officials or lawmakers could register as lobbyists, and a whistleblower hotline for state employees. "The financial disclosure, I do want to see it," Denney said. "I don't want the same thing come through as two years ago, that proposed to be a financial disclosure bill but exempted all these classes of people." When a financial disclosure bill passed the Senate unanimously in 2009, Denney blocked it in the House, in part because he was concerned that it didn't require disclosure of law firms' clients.

Told that the Democrats say their new disclosure bill will be more stringent than the last one, Denney said, "I'd certainly be willing to look at it."

As far as a one-year wait before lawmakers or other public officials could register as lobbyists, Denney said, "I don't have a problem with that. Let's hear it."