MONTGOMERY – State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) plans to file legislation in the 2026 session addressing public corruption.
According to a draft copy of the legislation, the bill would create the crime of public corruption which would generally apply to public officials and public employees who misuse public funds and property, obtain or exert unauthorized control over public funds or public property, or use or disclose certain confidential information in a manner that provides a pecuniary benefit to the public servant or another person.
Under existing law, a public employee or official who is found guilty of certain felony offenses involving their position in government forfeits their retirement benefits but is entitled to a refund of their personal contributions plus interest paid into the retirement system.
The bill would require the personal contributions made by a public servant plus interest to be used to pay restitution to the agency or other victim of their criminal offense. The bill would also require a public servant who is on paid leave pending an investigation of an alleged criminal offense involving his or her position in government to pay back, upon conviction of a crime, all compensation received since the criminal offense was committed.
Orr told 1819 News during a recent interview, “I’ve seen in the media lots of instances of corruption of late. Where you’ve got county workers, city workers, maybe state workers taking resources based on their position, spending it on themselves or in ways that are absolutely not permitted. In my opinion, we need to ramp up the penalties and the ability to recoup some of our money.”
“One thing the bill would allow is upon a conviction the ability of the prosecutors to grab the retirement funds of the state and the individuals, so what the state has put in and what the individual has put in, to pay back the taxpayers for the x amount of dollars that were stolen using their public position,” he added.
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