Governor, GOP Leaders Vow To Remove Proposed Changes To Open Records Law

Gov. Scott Walker and Republican leaders in the state Legislature said on Saturday that they would see to it that provisions in the state budget changing Wisconsin’s open records law will be removed.

The governor, along with state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, and state Sen. Alberta Darling and state Rep. John Nygren — the latter two of whom are co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee — released a statement that said they would remove the provisions from the budget proposal.

“We are steadfastly committed to open and accountable government. The intended policy goal of these changes was to provide a reasonable solution to protect constituents’ privacy and to encourage a deliberative process between elected officials and their staff in developing policy. It was never intended to inhibit transparent government in any way,” the statement read.

The proposal was brought up on Thursday evening as the Joint Finance Committee was finishing its work on the state budget. The Joint Finance Committee proposal would have limited public access to a wide-ranging amount of information about official bill draftings and communications by lawmakers. It would have also exempted some state agency records from public scrutiny.

The governor and legislative leaders said that the Legislature would form a “Legislative Council committee” to study this issue and allow for public input, according to the statement.

The statement was issued only hours after the governor had said he thought the open records proposal needed big changes. He had promised to meet with legislative leaders on Monday.

Walker met with reporters in Wauwatosa, just prior to marching in the city’s Fourth of July parade.

“My hope is that after talking with (GOP leaders) on Monday, we’ll get to the point where it’s either out completely or there are significant changes to it,” he said.

The governor declined to say if he knew which legislator was behind the proposed open records change.

“As you know, at the end of the legislative process, (there’s) a lot of things the legislative leadership works on,” Walker said.

The governor was also asked by the reporters — twice — if he knew about the proposal before it was introduced. He answered the second question by saying: “Again, those are all things we’ll talk about on Monday. I think it’s pretty clear lawmakers from both parties, as well as others, want to make sure there are changes, and we’re going to make sure that happens during that meeting on Monday.”