Legislative Update Week 9
HB 2006 hearings provide good insight;
Senate concurs on tax bill sending it Governor Kelly & Confirmations for Secretaries begin to occur
HB 2006
would require analysis and reporting on certain economic development programs every three years. This would be done through Legislative Post Audit and Department of Commerce. (Click
here
for a more detailed summary). One major caveat to the requirements in the bill is that confidential information or information that would be detrimental to a STAR Bond project could not be disclosed. A representative from the Pew Charitable Trusts testified to provide context regarding this kind of legislation in other states. He advised that HB 2006 includes many of the elements they encourage in incentive evaluation legislation.
Professor Ginther from KU also testified and endorsed the overall approach of the bill while also recommending that legislators expand its scope to require independent evaluations prior to passing new incentives. One of the most interesting questions that came up was how to get to the root of certain issues if the Secretary can deem that making certain information public might be detrimental to a STAR bond project. Prof. Ginther believes that if a company is receiving state incentives, one of the opportunity costs for that is giving up some level of confidentiality. She stopped short of saying that all protections for confidentiality should be removed, however, because there could be situations where revealing certain information might legitimately undo the value of the incentive.
Then Rep. Williams, the principal sponsor of the bill, testified and addressed some of the questions legislators had regarding confidentiality issues. She explained that no proprietary information would be made public by the requirements of the bill. Others testified in favor of the bill including Americans for Prosperity and the Kansas Chamber. Below are links to all the testimony given. The hearings concluded with legislators expressing an interest in the possibility of expanding the scope of HB 2006 even further, to review other programs in the Department of Commerce. They did not specify how or what programs exactly.
