ATLANTA - An ethics reform package authored by House Speaker David Ralston sailed through a key committee on Thursday, setting the stage for new fees and reporting requirements for lobbyists at the state Capitol.

Ralston - who became speaker following an ethics scandal involving his predecessor and a lobbyist - said the bill would foster greater transparency.

"The ultimate arbiter of what is acceptable is the voter," Ralston said Thursday.

"We have now equipped them with the information to decide what's proper or not proper."

The bill would establish an abuse of power provision for state legislators. It would ban lobbyists from initiating e-mail contact with lawmakers while the elected officials are in committee or debating bills.

Lobbyists would be required to make more frequent reports on what they spend entertaining lawmakers - every 15 days during the legislative session and every 30 days during the rest of the year. It would stiffen the penalties for bribery in Georgia and boost penalties for officials who file campaign and personal financial disclosures late.

The bill would also impose a $300 registration fee on paid lobbyists.

Some good government groups Thursday complained that the measure failed to go far enough to curb abuses.

It creates no cap on gifts from lobbyists - currently there is none - and no a ban on moving campaign funds from one committee to another.

Under the proposal, legislators would also continue to police their own conduct.

"Based on what I see, they have not taken this opportunity to really move forward in an aggressive manner," Common Cause executive director Bill Bozarth said.

Bozarth said the group would work to strengthen the measure as it advances.

Four Democratic amendments were shot down by party line votes in the committee Thursday. One would have added sexual harassment to violations covered under the new the abuse of power provision. The other would have placed a $50 cap on gifts, excluding meals and some work-related travel.

Republicans have been under pressure to toughen ethics rules after then-Speaker Glenn Richardson was sunk by scandal late last year. Richardson resigned following allegations of an affair with a lobbyist and a suicide attempt, which threw the GOP-led House into turmoil.

As he campaigned to succeed Richardson, Ralston promised to make the issue a top priority.

"I made a commitment to ethics reform," Ralston said. "I didn't make a commitment to what I can't do, which is make people behave. That's what each and every individual has to decide for themselves.

His bill would eliminate the joint legislative ethics committee - set up in 2005 as way for lawmakers to police their own conduct on conflict of interest complaints.

Ralston acknowledged Thursday that the panel "never really worked."

In 2007 it dismissed a conflict of interest complaint against Richardson concerning the lobbyist affair. Richardson stepped down as speaker in January after his ex-wife confirmed that the relationship had taken place.

Such complaints would be handled by the House and Senate Ethics committees, under the speaker's plan. Critics had pushed to have an independent body - such as the state Ethics Commission - consider complaints.

Ralston's plan would also rename the Ethics Commission the "Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance

Commission," making clear that the panel's mission is to handle campaign finance and lobbyist registrations.

State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, a Decatur Democrat who pushed for unsuccessfully for lobbyist gift caps, said that while the bill didn't contain everything she wanted it improved the current system.

"It has my vote," she said.