Friday, Mar. 25, 2005 | ||
Bad Links? | Chance amends school donor secrecy bill By JOHN MUNFORD Thanks in part to efforts by state Sen. Ronnie Chance of Fayette County, a bill that would have made secret all donations to the states universities, colleges and technical schools has been watered down. The amendment, which was being debated on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon at press time, would allow all donations totaling $10,000 a year to remain secret, Chance said. But if any person or business surpasses that amount, those records would be open to public inspection. This will allow the public to determine if any vendor of the university system was in turn making donations, Chance said. The previous version of the bill, which passed the Georgia House of Representatives, made all donations secret by taking them out from under the umbrella of Georgias Open Records Act. Doing so, critics said, would shield the public from learning about businesses who donate to university system institutions perhaps in an attempt to curry favor for doing business with the system. We feel like this (amendment) covers that, Chance said. Chance said the $10,000 limit, contained in the committee amendment he offered, would allow individual donors such as grandparents who want to donate to a particular school without having their grandchild who attends the school being treated differently. The bill also would be retroactive on records of donations of any person or business that makes a donation over the $10,000 limit and, within three years afterward, does any business with the same institution to which the donation is made, Chance noted. Ten thousand dollars in the grand scheme of things is not a lot of money when it comes to donations to the university system, Chance noted. The bill applies to the individual institutions and their associated foundations also.
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