Ethics Board Grants Louisiana Officials Home Address Privacy

The Louisiana Board of Ethics will now permit 28 state officials to redact their home addresses from public records.

Under state law, elected officials in Louisiana need to file an annual Personal Financial Disclosure Statement to the state Board of Ethics so the public can know their elected officials are being held accountable.

The law requires 33 elected officials to disclose their full name, home address, name of employer, job titles or involvement in any jobs held by the elected person, name and address of any nonprofit the person is involved with, sources of income in the last year, and the same information if the official has a spouse. There's a lot more that gets disclosed on the form, but this covers most of it.

These filings are intended to be public records for any state resident to see the financial interests and holdings of their elected officials. Understanding what financial interest our elected officials have is a very popular concept, people have even created an entire website following the public financial data of those serving on Capitol Hill.

A new ruling from the ethics board will allow several high-profile elected officials in the state to request that their home address be redacted on the published versions of the Personal Financial Disclosure Statement.

These statewide officials who can request to have their residences redacted include:

• Governor
• Lieutenant Governor
• Attorney General
• Secretary of State
• Treasurer
• Insurance Commissioner
• Agriculture Commissioner
• Cabinet Secretaries
  • Secretary of Health
  • Secretary of Environmental Quality
  • Secretary of Children and Family Services
  • Secretary of Veterans Affairs
  • Secretary of Revenue
  • Secretary of Wildlife and Fisheries
  • Secretary of Transportation and Development
  • Secretary of Economic Development
  • Secretary of Louisiana Workforce Commission
  • Secretary of Natural Resources
  • Secretary of Corrections
• Executive Secretary of the Public Service Commission
• Director of Civil Service Commission
• Education Superintendent
• Higher Education Commissioner
• Presidents of the 4 Public University Systems