While in Clayton this morning, state Treasurer Sarah Steelman — a Republican running for governor — stopped by the public library to lay out her proposals for improving ethics in government.

The proposals, unveiled earlier this week elsewhere in the state, target elected officials. Steelman acknowledged that all of her proposals would require legislative action, but added that — if elected — she would make their passage “a top priority.”

Among other things, Steelman calls for:

–”Instituting a policy banning elected officials and their families from profiting off of state tax credits, government contracts and loans.” (She notes that her office had such a policy on tax credits, which was overturned by the state Senate by a vote taken “in the middle of the night.”)

– Barring elected officials from accepting gifts from lobbyists (presumably, that would cut out the buffet lunches offered daily in the Capitol halls.)

–Requiring former elected officials to wait two years after leaving office before taking jobs as lobbyists, a move she says would end the current practice of lawmakers securing jobs as lobbyists before leaving office.

– Barring elected officials from serving as political consultants.

Steelman acknowledged that last provision is aimed at state House Speaker Rod Jetton, R-Marble Hill, who has been conducting a consulting business on the side while also holding office. She said that Jetton’s role last year in the adoption of the now-scuttled “village law” “has been criticized as an abuse of power.”

Her proposed bans would “end this abuse,” she said.

Steelman also calls for audio broadcasts of all legislative committee meetings, and “giving the Ethics Commission teeth by making the purposeful violation of ethics laws a felony.”

Now, such violations are misdemeanors.

Her proposals, she said, would “make government more responsive and transparent to the citizens of Missouri.”