The Ark Park was the subject of another legal "storm" in 2011.

The Office of the Attorney General issued an open records decision determining that the Tourism Cabinet violated the open records law in denying Representative Darryl Owens request for records submitted to the Cabinet by the Ark Park's developers to qualify for state incentives.

The open records decision is found at:

https://ag.ky.gov/orom/20111/11ORD033.doc

Legislation aimed at restricting the public's right of access to records relating to qualification for economic incentives, and the incentives offered, failed in the 2019 legislative session but is likely to return in 2020.

Proponents of HB 387 asserted the need for business friendly exceptions to our open records laws in order to compete with neighboring states whose public records laws purportedly erect greater barriers to access and therefore attract business prospects who prefer to strike deals in the dark corners of bureaucratic intrigue.

Those same dubious arguments ring through the halls of the same neighboring states' legislatures and are little more than a smokescreen for expanded governmental secrecy.