If the Georgia General Assembly wants the ultimate in ethics reform, the members should readily approve House Bill 919 by Rep. E. Culver “Rusty” Kidd, the Milledgeville independent.

Kidd’s simple little bill would require legislators to disclose each and every expenditure “made by a lobbyist, an employee of a lobbyist or any other person on behalf of or for the benefit of the reporting member of the General Assembly.”

That covers everything — money, gifts, meals and all the expense-paid junkets, hunting trips, freebie lodges, beach houses, lake houses, yachts and airplanes provided by corporate chiefs and others, the stuff you rarely hear about.

Kidd knows this stuff inside out and outside in, having lobbied legislators for nearly 40 years before winning his House seat last year in a special election to fill a vacancy. He learned the ropes from his late father, longtime state Sen. Culver Kidd, aka the “Silver Fox,” a master of the legislative game.

Teeth in ethics reform? Rep. Kidd’s bill has fangs. For a first offense of failure to report the required information, there would be a civil penalty “equal to the amount of the unreported expenditure or expenditures.” For a second offense, the penalty would be twice the amount spent. For subsequent offenses: three times the amount spent. And the penalty would have to be paid “from the personal funds of the offender” — not a campaign fund or some other source.

This bill ought to be passed. But even Kidd doesn’t expect it will. What does that say about “ethics reform” in this General Assembly?