editorial, Daily Local News, 6/19/14

Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Alaska, South Dakota, Kentucky and Florida.

What do these states have in common?

Hint: It’s a top 10 list.

Unfortunately, the criteria is not “quality of life.” Nor is it “economic prosperity” or “lowest cost of government.”

Sadly, it’s “most corrupt state governments in America,” according to a recent study published in Public Administration Review.

And there we are, right in the thick of the top (or maybe we should say bottom) 10 list.

Louisiana is legendary for its public corruption.

Illinois has … how many former governors in jail?

But Pennsylvania is right in there with the worst of them — possibly as a result of fallout from the Bonusgate probes.

Corruption of government officials is annoying. It’s embarrassing. But worst of all, it’s expensive.

The study said corruption costs citizens about $1,308 per person more in the most corrupt states than in states with average corruption.

Average corruption. That’s a strange term. How about no corruption?

That’s probably not possible, given the human condition.

But it does seem like governments can be set up for success or failure by their systemic checks and balances designed to prevent the possibility of corruption — or to police and prosecute it.

And Pennsylvania has a threadbare integrity net….

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