BGA considers laws relating to financial disclosure; freedom of information; whistleblower protection; gifts, trips, and honoraria; and campaign finance, combining these five measures into the broad-based BGA Integrity Index. CPI rates states by evaluating their laws concerning personal financial disclosure for legislators and lobbyist regulation.

The Integrity Index is published once every five years and is due to come out later this year - after the regular legislative session. In the 2002 index, Louisiana's governmental ethics laws ranked 46th overall, partly due to some oversights that are currently being addressed. However, even when these inaccuracies are corrected, Louisiana remains far from the top in many areas of governmental ethics laws offering great opportunity for improvement.