EDITORIAL

The Advocate-Messenger

Sunshine Week — the annual celebration of government transparency and its many benefits — is off to a slightly sunnier start this week, and it’s not because of Daylight Saving Time.

The Kentucky legislature has been on a tear in recent years, putting forth all kinds of bills designed to lessen accountability and make it harder to see what our governments are doing. This year was no exception, as lawmakers put forth several pieces of legislation that would — intentionally or not — erode the public’s access to government records.

But late last week, things brightened considerably concerning two of the worst bills for public accountability, thanks in part to the light shed on them by newspapers across the state and the public response. Sunshine truly is the best disinfectant.

Open government advocates have feared Senate Bill 193 could be a so-called placeholder bill that would eventually be amended to contain much of what was in the abhorrent Senate Bill 14 — a bill so bad it got quickly withdrawn before going anywhere. Among other things, SB 14 would have:

• created a financial incentive for government employees to withhold public records; and

• allowed the government to essentially fine someone for asking for records if the government disapproved of the reason for the request.

On Thursday, SB 193 apparently died for the session in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Another attack on open records, House Bill 387, would:

• add a new shroud of secrecy around economic development work in Kentucky, essentially exempting our economic development leaders from accountability for how they spend taxpayers’ money;

• turn open records law on its head by giving lawmakers control over access to their own records; and

• create a new residency requirement for open records requests that would cost a buttload to enforce and undermine government transparency nationwide.

But according to Kentucky Press Association President David Thompson, HB 387’s sponsor, Rep. Jason Petrie, has been open to working on the bill’s language. “We may not be as far apart on the issues as originally thought,” Thompson told Kentucky’s newspaper editors Friday. “But it’s not over ’til the fat lady sings,’ so we’ll await the gavel coming down March 28” to see if we can breathe a “huge sigh of relief.”

There’s been a lot to hate about HB 387. It’s one of the bills that helped Kentucky earn the dubious distinction from the National Freedom of Information Council of having an open records “crisis.” We’re not sure what if anything about the bill could ever be worth saving, but news of progress in negotiations is better than news that the bill has passed into law.

In these cases, it was sunlight that helped protect sunlight. Open government advocates set off alarms about these bills, and members of the public responded by calling their legislators in droves, demanding they vote against such regressive legislation. That’s a great example to hold up during Sunshine Week, and it needs to serve as a teachable moment for lawmakers.

We’re extremely proud of Kentuckians for valuing their ability to know what their government is up to. And we hope — against the odds — that our legislators will finally learn their lesson and change course next year. After all the recent attempts to move government into the shadows, it would be a refreshing change to see some legislation that  lets in more sun, by expanding and strengthening our open records and open meetings laws.