Two major exposés about the back room dealings associated with passage of open records-gutting bills -- one in North Carolina and the other in New Jersey -- appeared over the weekend.

https://www.theassemblync.com/politics/north-carolina-general-assembly-…

https://www.nj.com/politics/2024/06/the-inside-story-of-how-nj-and-its-…

New Jersey's experience, in particular, is similar to Kentucky's experience in the last legislative session -- with one major exception. The New Jersey bill, signed into law by a Democratic Governor, was sponsored by the New Jersey Democratic legislative majority.

But supporters' statements (including the statements of New Jersey's governor) that appear in the story mirror those made in Kentucky during last winter's hard fought battle to preserve the Kentucky Open Records Act -- which we managed to do by a hair's breadth.

"There won’t be one piece of public records that you cannot get today that you couldn’t get yesterday,” said New Jersey's Senate President, Nick Scutari, who supported the bill.

Sound familiar? The sponsor of the failed KY open records bill said nearly the same thing, promising to make "everything that is available now...available in the future."

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/ky-general-assembly…

Kentucky's Governor went a step further, declaring the bill "will provide more records, not less," and casually dismissing objections raised by open government advocates with vastly more knowledge of, and experience with, Kentucky's laws. "This isn't some big loophole where people can hide things," said Beshear.

https://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/some-controversial-bills-die-as-kentuck…

A faint echo of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy's defense of his decision to sign the Garden State's open records-gutting bill into law. "The headlines — ’Murphy kills transparency‘ — I don’t buy it. Netting everything else, I stick by my statement: It’s relatively modest.”

https://www.nj.com/politics/2024/06/the-inside-story-of-how-nj-and-its-…

Beshear was spared the indignity of signing HB 509 into law -- that Murphy endured in New Jersey -- when Kentucky lawmakers inexplicably failed to call HB 509 for a vote on the final day of the 2024 session.

https://kyopengov.org/blog/who-was-biggest-loser-hb-509-train-wreck-gov…

But Kentucky lawmakers promised they would be back in 2025 and are no doubt hatching a new plot during the interim session for the next regular session.

If for no other reason, this is why Kentuckians must remain on high alert. This is why we must educate ourselves about the "horse-trading that happens all the time in politics," but, in this context, at a dangerously high cost to the public's right to know and in the face of overwhelming public opposition -- in New Jersey, 81% of registered voters.

https://www.nj.com/politics/2024/06/the-inside-story-of-how-nj-and-its-…

Please take the time to read these articles -- at least the NJCom story -- to better understand how the public's right to know has become nothing more than a bargaining chip to lawmakers and elected officials who have no understanding of, much less appreciation for, Kentucky's open government laws.

Forewarned may be our best hope for being forearmed and successfully resisting the next (promised) assault on transparency and accountability in the Commonwealth. We cannot afford to rest.

As heavy a toll on New Jersey open government that state's new law may exact, Kentucky faces a far greater threat from proposals that create legally sanctioned hiding places for public officials' and employees' discussions of public business on their private devices and accounts.