What's $10,000 among friends?

The N.C. Ethics Commission is looking at whether it requires too much information on stock ownership.

Commissioners are wrapping up a legislatively mandated review of how well the two-year-old, updated version of the state ethics law has worked. On Friday they discussed whether the bar was too low in requiring state officials who must fill out a conflict of interests form to disclose any stock holdings worth $10,000 or more. Commissioners wondered aloud whether $100,000 was a more appropriate figure.

Executive Director Perry Newson agreed that most public officials shouldn't have to disclose stocks because nothing they do could affect the value. The commission's staff is going to research how other states handle the issue, and the commission could reccommend that the legislature raise the minimum.