HSPA thanks Baird for cooperation during legislative session

Dear Rep. Jim Baird Baird:

Editor's note: The following letter was sent from Hoosier State Press Association Executive Director Steve Key to Rep. Jim Baird, R-Greencastle, regarding Baird's vote on a bill regarding the public's right to know. Key shared the letter with the Banner Graphic and our readers.

The Hoosier State Press Association thanks you for your support of the concept of the public's right to know presented in the conference committee report for S.B. 369. This bill authored by Sen. Pete Miller, R-Brownsburg, included several provisions concerning government transparency:

* Require local government units to post certain financial information on the website of the state Department of Local Government Finance. (The original premise of S.B. 369);

* Preserve the option for a local government unit to publish its proposed budget, levy and estimated tax rate as part of a public notice of the unit's public hearing on the budget. (The original purpose of S.B. 288);

* Give citizens the right to obtain electronic records (Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, for example) in that format via email from government units, and;

* Allow government units to charge a search fee if a records request took more than two hours for the unit to locate the desired records. The fee was limited to the hourly rate of the government employee making the search (capped at $20 an hour) and the fee couldn't include time to review the records for possible denial or redaction.

The two changes above to the Access to Public Records Act originated in an agreement between HSPA and Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis. Prior to its inclusion into the conference committee report for S.B. 369, it had been amended into S.B. 288 by that bill's sponsor, Rep. Bruce Borders, R-Jasonville, during that bill's hearing before the House Local Government Committee.

S.B. 369 was then passed by the House 92-5 with your 'aye' vote, and by the Senate 46-2.

Unfortunately, Gov. Mike Pence decided on May 8 to veto the bill because of its inclusion of the search fee language. Gov. Pence could not support language that he believed could impede the public's ability to obtain public records.

While respecting the governor's position, HSPA believes the language would have encouraged citizens to more carefully craft records requests, but didn't serve as a barrier to access. The two-hour threshold before a fee could be imposed matches the language from the federal Freedom of Information Act. HSPA believes all the positives to S.B. 369 outweighed any potential negative from that search fee provision.

S.B. 288, authored by Sen. Sue Glick, R-LaGrange, originally would have preserved the publication of a local government unit's proposed budget, levy and estimated property tax rate as part of a notice of the unit's public hearing on its budget. In addition to HSPA, this bill was supported by the League of Women Voters-Indiana, Farm Bureau, Common Cause and Citizens Action Coalition.

The amended S.B. 288 was passed out of the House Local Government Committee, chaired by Rep. John Price, R-Greenwood, with an 11-2 vote.

S.B. 288 after passage in the House Local Government Committee was recommitted to the House Ways and Means Committee chaired by Rep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville. S.B. 288 died when he refused to give the bill a hearing.

It was Sen. Pete Miller who agreed to the inclusion of the House version of S.B. 288 that died in Ways and Means Committee into the conference committee report for his S.B. 369.

HSPA looks forward to working with you in the future.

Sincerely,
Steve Key
Executive Director
and General Counsel
Hoosier State Press Association