South Carolina — and about 20 other states — got an “F” from a Washington watchdog for the quality of its laws requiring legislators to reveal outside influences that could sway their votes.

The Center for Public Integrity looked at laws requiring legislators to disclose their conflicts of interest, benefits received from government contracts and other outside interests.

The laws are intended to let the public know whether lawmakers have personal interests that might conflict with the people’s business.

While South Carolina requires lawmakers to file annual disclosure forms, it doesn’t require much detail, and the forms aren’t easily available for the public to see, the center found.

For that reason, South Carolina scored 59.5 out of 100 possible points — an “F” grade.

Lawmakers were surprised.

“We’ve always thought we had a pretty strong disclosure law,” said House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville.

The center ranked all 47 states with disclosure laws — Michigan, Idaho and Vermont don’t require lawmakers to file statements of economic interest.

Only two states — Washington and Hawaii — received an “A.” Washington ranked No. 1 with a score of 93.5. South Carolina tied with Indiana and Virginia at 28th.

Among the problems the center found in South Carolina:

Lawmakers only report sources of income if they are from “state and local agencies in South Carolina.”

• Lawmakers report their employers’ names but not their job titles or any descriptive information about their employment.

Copies of the disclosure forms are not available online.

Lawmakers said they were willing to talk about strengthening the laws.

“We all agree with the old saying, ‘sunshine is the best disinfectant,’” Wilkins said.

But there are no immediate plans to address the law.

Although House Minority Leader Harry Ott, D-Calhoun, said he agreed with Wilkins, he didn’t offer to raise the issue.

“We’ll get right behind the Republicans,” he said. “They’re running the show these days.”

Reach Talhelm at (803) 771-8339 or jtalhelm@thestate.com