12/18/07-The House has put on hold until next year consideration of a bill that would apply the state’s open records rules to the Legislature. Legislative records would be “presumed” to be open unless they are specifically exempted under the bill.
HB2072 remained in the House Appropriations Committee when lawmakers started wrapping up the 2007 regular session. It can be brought back for consideration there during the session that begins Jan. 1.
The bill would require information at the state and local levels of government be made available as long as it doesn’t fall into one of 28 exceptions – personal Social Security numbers, records deemed to threaten domestic security and police investigative records, for example.
The bill would require responses from executive and local agencies within five business days – down from 10. Agencies also would be required to justify denials when a dispute goes to court, instead of forcing the person seeking the record to show why it should be public.
If the court rules in favor of the requester, the offending agency could face fines up to $1,000. Agencies also would be required to set up Web sites to post all state contracts, including contracts with the Legislature.