A proposal to allow local governments to hide records about business deals from the public has failed to clear one of its final hurdles in the Louisiana Legislature.
House Bill 461 A bill introduced by Rep. Stephen Jackson (D-Shreveport) that would exempt records that may affect local or parish business plans from Louisiana's public records law narrowly failed in the full Senate on Tuesday by a 19-19 vote.
Jackson, a freshman senator, planned to reintroduce the bill before senators on Thursday, but support for the bill may have weakened further. It's unclear whether Jackson will try to reintroduce the bill when lawmakers return on Tuesday after the Memorial Day weekend. Jackson said in a call Thursday that he hasn't heard from any senators who have changed their position on the bill and hasn't decided what to do yet.
The proposal would have allowed mayors, parish presidents and other local officials to declare records confidential if they believed their release would have an “adverse effect” on ongoing business negotiations. It would also allow local governments to hide records of expenses from the public if the expenses are related to negotiations.
Jackson later limited the bill's scope to projects over $5 million and added a four-year “sunset” provision that would cause the law to expire on Jan. 1, 2028.
Public records are a tool commonly used by investigative journalists, local watchdog groups, and concerned citizens to expose government corruption, waste, and other wrongdoings. Every state and federal government has some sort of “open access” laws regarding records.
But state lawmakers have gradually pared back Louisiana's public records law, adopting more than two dozen amendments that have revoked public access to many government documents since the law was enacted in 1940.
Jackson's bill received little scrutiny early in the session, but after several rounds of public opposition, lawmakers began to question the measure. Similar suggestions The bills, introduced at the urging of Republican Governor Jeff Landry, also stalled.
One of those measures would have hidden most records in the governor's office from the public, and another measure was seen by many as a near repeal of Louisiana's public records law.
During a committee hearing on the bill, Jackson said he proposed the bill because when he served on a local government commission, consultants in other jurisdictions would make public records requests to find out what incentives were being offered to companies. The consultants and competing governments would use that information to try to lure projects, Jackson said.
Louisiana lawmakers advance bill that would allow local governments to hide records from the public
Jackson's bill created some strange bedfellows: it won support from Jackson's fellow Democrats in the Congressional Black Caucus and from some conservative Republicans, while at the same time the Caucus continued to staunchly oppose other public records bills.
Jackson has teamed up with Republican Sen. Jean-Paul Cousin, D-Lafayette, to introduce the bill on his behalf on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Coussin said the bill would benefit cities and parishes with industrial parks that are negotiating leases with “large tenants” who prefer to strike deals in secret.
“If that becomes public, they essentially lose any leverage in the negotiations,” Coussin said.
of lighting equipment Last year, public records were obtained. Proposed Fertilizer Plant Jefferson County offered huge tax incentives to the company behind the project, but after reports of the company's vague job promises, residents spoke out against the project, and it was ultimately scrapped.
Republican Sen. Thomas Pressley of Shreveport, who debated Coussin on the floor, said similar situations have occurred in other parishes.
“While I understand the thinking behind this plan, I have great concerns that the public will not have a chance to hear what their local officials are doing, what tax benefits they're giving them, what jobs they're going to get, what agreements are in place,” Pressley said. “… It's important that residents have the right to stand up and voice their opposition to the project.”
Pressley also took issue with the bill's lack of a definition of “economic development” records, which the bill describes as relating to any project “involving the maintenance, expansion or attraction of further economic development.”
Sen. Gary Carter, a Democrat from New Orleans, said the amendment limiting the exemption to projects worth more than $5 million should allay concerns that local governments would use the law to hide most of their business and financial records.
Coussin noted the bill has provisions requiring local governments to post a notice on their website or in the Federal Register whenever they plan to conceal records for an economic development project, as well as a provision limiting the period for which records can be kept secret to no more than 24 months.
“I think there are certainly some protections in place,” Cousin said. “It's not a random attack.”
Pressley said few people pay much attention to the town's website or official journal and “nobody reads them.”
“This is a huge expansion of current law and it's wrong,” he said. “We need to make sure the public has the opportunity to get the information and decide what's best for their community. If they're going to build a smelly tire plant in our district, I'm sure I'd want my voters to know about it, and they'd want to know about it.”
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