As state legislators moved to adjourn early today, they also moved to close gaps in ethics, lobbying and campaign finance rules that left state government open to a spate of scandals this past year.

Advocates of tighter rules praised the changes but said they did not address some practices that will continue to invite abuse.

Capping months of reform work, legislators created an ethics law for executive branch officials; put an end to many of the expensive dinners, golf trips and other perks that lobbyists offered lawmakers; and banned lobbyists from making campaign contributions or collecting campaign checks from others.

Those reforms joined others passed earlier that include a ban on personal use of campaign funds and a prohibition of campaign checks with blank payee lines. Many of the reforms would take effect Jan. 1.

Gov. Mike Easley did not say Thursday whether he would sign the lobbying and ethics reform bill. But he praised lawmakers for their hard work on a difficult issue.

"Overall, this is the biggest reform package in the area of ethics, of campaign finance and lobbying law reform since the mid-'70s," said Ran Coble, executive director of the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research, a nonpartisan think tank.

All together, the new rules would:

* Eliminate many perks of privilege -- ACC tickets, expensive dinners and golf trips provided by lobbyists and their clients.

* Stop the practice of spending campaign money on cars, computers or cash to family members.

* Limit the influence of lobbyists on raising campaign money for lawmakers and top state officials.

* Impose new criminal penalties for those who break the rules: Lie about your financial interests on a public disclosure form and face a felony. Hide them and face a misdemeanor.

But some cited what lawmakers did not do.

Lawmakers did not: ban lobbyists from soliciting contributions, turn over policing of legislative ethics violations to an independent authority or bring much of the information on ethics cases out from behind closed doors.

They also did little to weaken the campaign funding power legislative leaders have over the legislative body. Legislative leaders, for example, can still distribute tens of thousands of dollars into key legislative races by running their campaign money through the political parties. If legislative leaders could only give directly, they would be limited to $4,000 per candidate during an election.

"Maybe someday, we will ... seriously address the big chunks of money that flow through our campaign system," said Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican.

Scandals before the reform

The reforms result from several scandals involving House Speaker Jim Black's legislative and campaign activities. Political observers say they amount to the most significant reform push in North Carolina since Watergate.

Black's unpaid political director and one of his appointees to the new state lottery commission had been secretly lobbying for a major lottery vendor, state officials found. Black testified in an elections hearing that he had funneled $4,200 in campaign checks with the payee lines blank to a key ally who helped him stay in power.

Meanwhile, in the executive branch, an e-mail message surfaced from the state electrolysis board chairwoman, who later resigned, that sought to raise $100,000 from her colleagues to get favorable legislation passed.

The new legislation would prevent such contributions and fundraising, but Andy Taylor, an N.C. State University political science professor, said it will not diminish the influence of lobbyists.

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