Gov. Haley Barbour Monday signed a comprehensive ethics reform bill that its author says opens government for public inspection.

The measure that takes effect July 1 requires elected officials to file ethics reports on the Internet for public review. It will also call for elected officials to reveal on the Internet their business interests.

The ethics law creates tougher penalties for willful violations of public meeting laws, including a maximum $10,000 fine for violation of its statutes.

The package of bills would allow citizens a grievance process when they're shut out of public meetings and would also make more government records open to the public.

"The public's going to benefit and the law is going to be enforced. The law's going to be followed more because people will be paying more attention when they know there's an enforcement mechanism," said Tom Hood of the Mississippi Ethics Commission.

Hood said he expects the conflict of interest reports to be online as early as this fall, with all filings required to be online by Jan. 1, 2010. They've always had paper copies, but now citizens can find out a lawmakers business dealings without leaving home.

Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant said he hopes to go one step farther.

"Who is loaning public officials money? And should that be reported? And we had some difficulty with some members who disagreed with whether or not we should clearly let the taxpayers know if we are receiving loans," Bryant said.

It seems as if the consensus is that government is run on behalf of the public with the public's money, so therefore it should be operated with the public in mind. And of course, they say that means letting the public know exactly what is going on.

Officials say they hope this new law will shine a positive light on Mississippi as far as ethics are concerned, especially after all of the negative publicity received by the state during and after judicial bribery cases.

Governor Barbour says he believes it will bring more citizens to be apart of state government.