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Legislative Alert:
HB-218 secret meetings bill tabled in Senate

HB-218:

Public records; economic development; exemption and disclosure of certain records
(1) Stephens,Ron 164th (2) Horne,Billy 71st (3) Cheokas,Mike 134th
HC: ED&T SC: ECD Status: 02/24/05 - Senate Tabled

This bill has the effect of nullifying the concept of open government. Your government can decide to place a facility in your back yard and you get to find out after the fact. Between this and SB 5 (giving developers the ability to request that your property be condemned) we see a not so subtle shift of power to developers, eliminating the rights of the citizens who pay the bill for our state government.

Of yes, some will scream that this bill is innocent. Well read the following provision:

C) Records not subject to disclosure pursuant to subparagraph (A) of this paragraph shall become subject to public disclosure once the agency, person, business, or entity publicly announces that the entity or business that is the subject of negotiations will be retained, expanded, or located in the jurisdiction or that negotiations to do so have been terminated or abandoned.

The bill was assigned to the Senate Economic Development Committee which passed the bill with a positive recommendation. Absolutely amazing that this bill was just one step away from going to the governor. But the Senate has now tabled the bill. But keep your eyes open, this is NOT good government, it is government for the benefit of special interests who always prefer secret back room deals to being in the open.

There are no recorded votes for the Senate, but if one of the members of this committee is your State Senator you need to give them a call and see if they voted for this in committee! If so you should consider retiring them in 2006 and letting them go work for their special interests!

Senate Economic Development
Legislation Assigned