Dennis Milligan, our state treasurer with the checkered past, has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1,000. He's also repaid the state $6,941.62 that his first cousin had already collected after Mr. Milligan hired him to work for the treasurer's office--despite a state law against having relatives on the payroll.
Naturally the state's Democratic Party released a fiery denunciation of Dennis Milligan's latest misdeed (". . . this incident is merely another example of a larger pattern of ethical misconduct on the part of Mr. Milligan . . .") Only this time the Democrats weren't engaging in just partisan boilerplate. There was evidence to back up every word of its outrage, which ought to be shared by the whole state.
Our state treasurer's office just seems to attract rascals like Dennis Milligan, if not all of them can match his record as a political scoundrel of the first water. Let's see, there was Gus Wingfield, who was fined $750 and reprimanded by the state Ethics Commission for handing out pay raises and promotions to relatives. And of course the notorious Martha Shoffner, who was caught on camera accepting bribes from bond broker Steele Stephens of St. Bernard Financial Services. And was convicted a year ago of 14 charges of bribery and extortion.
The lesson of this latest scandal in that much abused office: Its occupant deserves watching every minute. The worst could be yet to come.
Editorial on 03/19/2015