You’ve got to admire state Rep. Angel Cruz, one of the Democratic Party legislators caught on audiotape being offered a bribe as part of an Attorney General’s Office sting.

Cruz, from North Philadelphia’s 180th District, repeatedly refused the confidential informant posing as a lobbyist.

It happened May 24, 2011, when informant Tyron B. Ali offered Cruz $1,000 in exchange for a yes vote for the controversial Voter ID bill.

“I’m like, whoa,” Cruz said in an interview last week with the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I told him I don’t roll like that.”

At least four other Philadelphia area legislators were recorded accepting bribes, and a traffic court judge accepted a jeweled bracelet worth $2,000 as part of the three-year sting, which was canceled by Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

In a state where politicians can accept gifts as long as they report them, Cruz sets a higher standard: No cash, no gifts.

And Cruz’s additional safeguard: “I don’t take nobody’s money. If you are going to donate money to the campaign, it has to be a fundraiser, it has to be a check, we are going to declare it, and it never touches my hands.”

There’s a growing sentiment among Pennsylvanians that a standard like Cruz’s should be the law everyone follows.

Pennsylvania’s existing Ethics Act bans gifts that are given to influence an official’s decisions. Public officials must disclose gifts that are not from family or close friends and are worth $250 or total $650 in a given year.

Common Cause Pennsylvania last week renewed its call for a total ban on gifts to public officials, citing the sting that was canceled — even though four state lawmakers were caught on tape accepting money.

Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause, said a “seemingly unending litany of abuses of power” makes people cynical about the integrity of state government. But Kane, who inherited the matter when she took office early last year, said the investigation was poorly run and the case was considered to be fatally flawed by her staff, a federal law enforcement agency and the county prosecutor in Harrisburg.

None of the four legislators who accepted cash has been charged with a crime. But the uproar in reaction to the Inquirer report supports the idea that crimes — or, at least, unethical acts — were committed.

Such controversy can be avoided in the future if Pennsylvania had a total ban on gifts to politicians and strict procedural rules for the collection and processing of campaign contributions.

What about requiring instructions in ethics for state-level politicians? That way, nobody can claim ignorance of the law.