FERRIDAY — The controversial legislative pay raise may have overshadowed the 2008 legislative session, but Sen. Neil Riser said he believes the comprehensive ethics reforms passed were the most important part.

The state senator for district 32, Riser gave up a legislative wrap-up as the guest speaker at the Ferriday Rotary Club’s meeting Thursday.

The reforms, passed during a special session, included a ban on free tickets to lawmakers, a $50 cap on meals bought by lobbyists and a ban on hunting and fishing trips with lobbyists.

“Being my first term, I didn’t know any different, but it was a little better because when you walk out of the chamber you weren’t bombarded with, ‘go fishing, go fishing,’” Riser said. “The thing was that that person wasn’t a constituent, but a lobbyist.”

Another facet of the ethics reform was to require legislators to disclose where their income comes from.

The disclosure forms do not require legislators to disclose exact amounts, but they do require legislators to specify a range — for example, $30,000 to $50,000 — and the source of the income, Riser said.

Other high points included the repeal of the Stelly Tax and the special spending session, in which legislators allocated $1.1 billion in surplus funds to one-time projects.

“More of that money went to south Louisiana than we would have liked, but (District 21 Rep. Andy Anders and I) concentrated most of our money on U.S. 84,” Riser said.

The two worked together to appropriate $8 million into the budget for the Department of Transportation and Development for the four-laning of U.S. 84.

“We wanted to get far enough into the project that the state had to finish it,” Riser said. “The idea was to give projects enough money to keep them viable until next year.”

As for those controversial pay increases, Riser said his decision to sign an affidavit refusing to take the increase was fueled in part by his constituents’ wishes and by a desire to be consistent.

“If you vote against it and still take the money, that’s the same as voting for it,” Riser said.

The pay raise was a personal issue for every legislator, and some had perfectly legitimate reasons for voting for it, but Riser said he had a campaign promise to keep.

“I said when I ran for office I would vote against a pay raise if it came up during the middle of a term,” he said.

But after two special sessions and the regular legislative session, Riser learned the cost of public service, he said.

“I spent 142 nights away from home,” he said.