I wonder if local officials, elected and appointed, are paying attention to New York Governor David Paterson’s latest woes.

An independent counsel appointed to investigate Paterson’s receipt of free World Series tickets concluded the governor lied when he testified that he had always intended to pay for them. She has now referred the question of whether Paterson should face perjury charges to the district attorney.

The basic story. A 2008 state ethics ruling made clear that officials are not permitted to solicit or receive event tickets under most circumstances, although the practice has been common in New York and elsewhere. Paterson got World Series tickets for himself, his son and a friend, and two aides, and later gave conflicting accounts of how they were obtained.

The case has drawn more attention to the question of free event tickets, which have raised ethics and political issues in California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and elsewhere.

An earlier story about Paterson and the tickets noted that the ethics questions go beyond whether the tickets are free or not.

Political access to tickets, even when the recipient isn’t involved in official business and is willing to pay for the tickets, is also problematic. A politician can get through to the Yankees; the average citizen cannot. Doesn’t that give a politician an advantage? Is that ethical?

And, as the Yankees did in this case, teams have little choice but to acquiesce. Can you imagine the Yankees telling the Gov to get lost, like they do the media or critics of the government handouts that were used to finance the construction of their new stadium?

When politicians purchase tickets directly from the club – or Major League Baseball, which makes a number of tickets available to political mucky-mucks – they do so at face value. Try that if you’re the average citizen. Paterson will reimburse the Yankees $425 each, the face value of his seats behind home plate. For those of us without a direct line to the Yankees, there’s ticket reseller StubHub, which, according to the New York Post, had tickets to Game 6 of the World Series available for $5,000 each.

Here in Hawaii, the State Ethics Commission has ruled back in 1996 there must be a valid state purpose before anyone can be given free tickets, and that the provision of additional tickets for friends or family members would generally not be allowed.

The issue came up again recently over tickets to athletic events given to UH administrators and members of the Board of Regents.

So our Ethics Commission was ahead of its time in setting down a policy. The problem is that the policy isn’t always being applied, and the commission’s ability to enforce is constrained by budget and staffing issues. But with all the attention being given to the issue elsewhere, it’s sure to blow up again here sooner or later.