Florida legislators make $29,687 a year — not bad for a part-time job, but not exactly a king’s wages. Their real chance to cash in comes after they leave.

Then, as history shows, they can capitalize on their relationships and know-how — assets they’ve acquired at public expense — to land lucrative jobs as lobbyists.

State law bars ex-legislators from lobbying their former colleagues in the Capitol, but only for two years. And there’s no waiting period for them to lobby executive branch agencies.

Former Speaker Dean Cannon, the Winter Park Republican whose two-year term as the state House’s presiding officer ended this month, wasted no time in hanging out his shingle. He actually created his own lobbying firm, Capitol Insight LLC, a month before his term expired, and told fellow legislators and lobbyists about his new gig before he left office.

Cannon, a lobbyist before he was first elected to the House in 2004, says he followed all the rules about legislating and lobbying and got the blessing of the state ethics commission. What this really shows is how weak those rules are .

When the Legislature becomes a farm team for the Capitol’s lobbying pros, Floridians can’t be blamed for wondering if senators and representatives are making decisions to serve the public interest or to please potential employers.

The Legislature’s new leaders have vowed to make ethics reform a priority. That should make them eager, with Cannon as exhibit A, to push for a longer, broader ban on lobbying by former legislators. Why just two years? Why leave out executive branch agencies?

Floridians need to be confident that legislators are representing them, not trying to impress special interests with the biggest lobbying budgets.

— Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel