The headline speaks for itself and as one of Arkansas’ finest legislators, Rep. Andrea Lea, told KARN’s Donna Kelley:

“It’s not surprising.  Disappointing, but not surprising.”

There is a little hope that Arkansas’ score might see an increase in the future with the state’s online checkbook reportedly scheduled to launch in July.  But anytime New Jersey, Illinois, & Louisiana score ahead of your state on an ethics rating, you tend to worry.

Some of the factors in the score were “Public Access to Information” & “State Pension Fund Management.”  Arkansas received an ‘F’ in both categories.

Here’s a really neat-0 chart from State Integrity Investigation that shows how Arkansas was scored and why (click on the image to visit SII’s website & see how each score was determined):

Nic Horton