State economic development incentives for large projects would remain secret until a company commits to a project or abandons negotiations, according to legislation that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.
The new provision would grant a new exemption from the Open Records Act to the Georgia Department of Economic Development. It would involve projects that would cost more than $25 million or hire more than 50 employees. It would not be extended to county or municipal developmental authorities.
The Senate panel agreed to the economic development amendment while also approving House Bill 397, the first major rewrite in more than a decade of the state's sunshine laws.
Among HB 397's provisions are more severe penalties for those who break the sunshine laws, increasing the maximum fine to $1,000 for a single offense and to $2,500 for a repeat offender. The rewrite also would provide new exemptions for governing bodies to gather, such as when a quorum of members attend the same civic function. It also clarifies what board and council members can and cannot do when meeting in executive session.
Georgia's sunshine laws pertain only to the executive branch of government; the Legislature and the judiciary would continue to be exempt under HB 397.
On Monday, Hollie Manheimer, executive director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, spoke out against the economic development exemption. "We don't need another exception in Georgia," she told the committee, predicting counties and cities will soon ask for the same exception.
The bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Jay Powell, R-Camilla, told the panel that the Department of Economic Development asked for the amendment and said some competing states use the open records law to find out what incentives Georgia is offering a company.
Under the provision, when a company commits to a project in Georgia, the Department of Economic Development must post on its website its records documenting what commitments the state made during negotiations. The agency also must disclose the same information, upon request, after a company terminates negotiations.
State officials have long sought economic development exemptions. In 2005, the House passed sweeping legislation, but the measure stalled in the Senate. Similar legislation was introduced last year to extend the secrecy for such information. The provision adopted Monday by the Judiciary Committee is more limited than the prior proposals.
The committee also approved a provision that would decrease to five business days the amount of time the Board of Regents must wait before taking final action to hire a university president. Current law requires the regents to wait 14 days after the finalists' names are disclosed to the public.
Tom Clyde, a lawyer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, asked the committee to keep the law as it is. Five days are not enough for a news organization to probe a candidate's extensive background, publish the information and give the public enough time to scrutinize it before the board makes such an important hiring decision, he said.
But the committee agreed to the new five-day rule after hearing from Burns Newsome, vice chancellor of the Board of Regents, who said the state has lost candidates during the two-week window to other universities who sweetened their offers.
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