Too many Rhode Island politicians ignore their obligations to file accurate and timely campaign finance reports. Those failures are often signals of other, more serious troubles.

Former House Speaker Gordon Fox was sent to federal prison after he was found guilty of bribery, filing a false tax return and misappropriating campaign money. He took $108,000 from his campaign account to help with personal expenses. Former House Finance Committee Chairman Raymond Gallison, in prison for stealing from a dead man’s estate and a disabled woman’s trust and for taking money from a nonprofit where he did no work, was fined for misreporting $18,850 in campaign contributions. Providence City Council member Luis Aponte, forced to step down as council president last year, was indicted on two felony charges — embezzlement and personal use of campaign money.

There is no substitute for basic honesty in elected officials, of course. But Rhode Island’s lawmakers missed an opportunity last year to encourage greater accountability and transparency in the realm of campaign finance, by ignoring a bill that would have required routine audits of campaign finance accounts.

Introduced at the request of Gov. Gina Raimondo, the bill called for audits of at least a quarter of the reports for candidates who have raised or spent more than $10,000. It also upped the fines and penalties for filing late reports, required more information on candidate declaration forms, and let the state seize campaign funds if a candidate is convicted of crimes “related to public office service.”

Despite its merits, the bill was “held for further study,” which is a way of saying leaders refused to back it. Evidently, they are not fans of such scrutiny and accountability. But with a new year upon us, Ms. Raimondo says she will reintroduce this legislation. Leaders of the House and Senate should get behind it and make sure it passes.

Regular audits of campaign finance accounts would encourage more responsible behavior and would only help in getting politicians to think twice before using campaign money in an unethical or unlawful way. The Board of Elections does review all campaign finance filings, but routine audits of a quarter of the campaign accounts that are north of $10,000 would represent an increase in the state’s efforts to monitor these accounts.

In a state with a sorry track record for political corruption, that would be no small matter. While Rhode Island will have to undertake tax and regulatory reforms and dramatically improve public schools to create a foundation for growth and economic opportunity, strong measures of accountability would enhance the state's reputation by making politicians less likely to cheat.

This measure would not impact the state budget, advocates say, because the fines that would result would help pay for the additional monitoring. But the cost, in any event, is well worth it. Many scandals and misappropriations would undoubtedly be avoided if politicians knew their campaign finance reports were subject to routine audits. And it is vitally important that campaign contributions not pass directly into politicians' pockets for personal use, because then they become indistinguishable from bribes.