Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2005 | ||
Bad Links? | HB 218 stinks and should be buriedYou wont see this often in this space: An editorial in wholehearted support of a position taken by The Atlanta-Journal Constitution. (And incidentally, by an ever expanding number of newspapers across the state.) The subject is House Bill 218 and its rollback of the publics legal right to know about what deals its elected and appointed representatives are cooking up in secret with private businesses. The Georgia House of Representatives last week stupidly followed a herd mentality and voted against their own bosses, the voters, in favor of shielding deals from public scrutiny. The excuse given is that big manufacturers avoid locating in Georgia because they fear the states relatively mild open records law would allow competitors to peek into their private business operations. To quote the AJC, There may be only one or two of those deals to negotiate a decade and open records laws have little or no impact on what one state knows about what the other is offering. They all know. They have paid consultants working back channels to find out. The kind of deals HB 218 will encourage are not nearly so sexy or lucrative. In the name of economic development, a waste hauling company or a chicken processing plant could dangle a few jobs in front of local economic development officials and get them to agree to it before neighbors have any say about it. This bill stinks. It puts the interests of industry and economic development prospects ahead of voters. The Citizen could not agree more. The bill now is in the state Senate, where it should be buried with all the ceremony given to disposal of ripe chicken manure. Fayettes Republican legislators should be ashamed of themselves for forgetting who put them in office. If this is the kind of governance we can expect from a GOP-controlled legislature, Georgians may have to rethink their political allegiances, if only in the Georgia House. We will be reporting in this paper which of your elected legislators voted in favor of your right to know and which legislators voted that you are too stupid to be trusted with such information. You should plan your next votes for the Georgia House and Senate (and Governor) based on what happens in the next few days to HB 218. |
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