It has been 20 years since President Ronald Reagan first promoted the concept of new federalism, the transfer of power and responsibility from the federal government to the states. The federal government, by acts of Congress, executive actions and Supreme Court decisions, has done its part. The states, while accepting the power, have done little on the responsibility side of the equation.

That is the conclusion of a new report by the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based, nonpartisan ethics and public service watchdog. The report, “Our Private Legislatures — Public Service, Personal Gain,” is the result of an exhaustive two-year assessment of the extent to which the personal interests of legislators in the 50 states affect the legislation they enact and how well the public is informed on just what those personal interests are.

Fully half of the states, including Maine, got failing grades in both preventing actual or perceived conflicts of interest and in requiring public disclosure of relevant information about lawmakers’ income, assets and connections to organizations that lobby for legislative action.

Maine, like 40 other states, has a part-time citizen legislature. Given that, it is inevitable that lawmakers will have outside interests. It is even reasonable to assume that those outside interests, translated into real-world experience, bring valuable first-hand knowledge to the lawmaking process. That benefit does not, however, explain or excuse the primary failing in Maine’s ethics laws — it’s spotty and meager disclosure requirements.

Maine lawmakers only have to report their primary source of income. They do not have to disclose officer or directorship positions, or their spouses’ employers or investments. Failure to file a disclosure report, scant as it is, carries no penalty. Public access to those reports must be done by fax or mail at a cost of 40 cents per page.

It could be worse. Three states require no disclosure; several let lawmakers decide for themselves what outside interests might pose potential conflicts. A few require members of the public seeking disclosure reports to file disclosure reports on themselves, with lawmakers free to use that information as they wish.

But, of course, it could be better. Not merely an indictment of shoddy ethics practices, the center’s report provides detailed information about the states that have it right. Washington is the top-ranked state. It requires lawmakers to disclose a wide range of individual and family interests. Loopholes in the ethics law are sought out, not to be exploited, but to be plugged. Perhaps best of all, those comprehensive disclosure forms are available on-line at no charge, a worthwhile use of not terribly new technology that makes Maine’s written requests at 40 cents a pop seem both antiquated and deliberately obstructionist.

The Maine Ethics Commission has in the past proposed fixes to Maine’s shortcomings, but those proposals have gone nowhere. Maine voters have, through initiated referendum, enacted term limits and a clean-elections law in response to concerns about entrenched lawmakers and undue influence of special interests. Now, it is the Legislature’s turn — more complete disclosure and better access to disclosure reports is in the interest of every Maine citizen, including its citizen legislators.