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A growing trend in corporate-government relations is to offer state-funded cash incentive payments to private businesses. Economic development experts contend that incentives are essential in certain situations to gain a competitive edge that will lure businesses with large-scale projects promising significant job growth and competitive salaries.
Two bills introduced this session, which would have opened most of the governor’s records to the public, are all but dead due to strong opposition from the administration. Instead, the administration supports SB 278, which purports to move Louisiana forward in executive branch transparency but would actually deliver a devastating blow to open government. SB […]
Louisiana law generally provides that documents of public bodies shall be open to the public. However, hundreds of exceptions to the general rule have been created both in statute and case law. This session, the Legislature is again considering redefining the public records exception for the office of the governor. One bill (SB 278) being […]
Sunshine Week (March 15-21, 2009) is a national initiative that highlights the importance of open government and freedom of information. Over the past several decades, PAR has recommended numerous ways to improve citizens’ access to government. Many of those recommendations have been adopted in recent years. However, much remains to be done to bolster transparency, […]
It is time to end the broad exception from public records laws that Louisiana grants to the governor’s office. A limited exception that would shield from public view only the records directly in the custody of the governor, his chief of staff and his executive counsel should replace the current exception that covers records in […]
State contracts with private entities are the citizens’ window into how taxpayer dollars for goods and services are spent. They provide explanation of who has agreed to do what for the state, according to which timelines, prices and/or quality expectations.
Reform-oriented strategy was sorely lacking during the 2007 Regular Legislative Session. For a state still neck deep in its recovery from two catastrophic hurricanes two years prior with three extraordinary pots of cash to spend, a lame-duck governor and a term-limited Legislature, Louisiana demonstrated a remarkable capacity for sticking to its traditional script. The unprecedented […]