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A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 10-1-767 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to applicability of article relative to trade secrets, so as to clarify that certain information generated as a result of an economic development project conducted by a private person or entity shall not constitute public information; to provide for exceptions; to provide for related matters; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

Athens Banner-Herald
Published Friday, March 04, 2011
Buzz up!
It's a bit disheartening that, as Georgia's attorney general is working to toughen this state's open-government laws, a number of legislators are working to put the public in the dark with regard to some governmental activities.
A bill now making its way through the legislative process would allow governmental agencies and quasi-governmental agencies - including city councils, county commissions and the economic development authorities and similar bodies operating in those jurisdictions - to keep the public from finding out what businesses and industries they might be courting, and what they might be doing with taxpayers' dollars and other incentives to lure those businesses and industries.
The language in the heart of the bill is almost chilling, describing how "information relating to a private person or entity's economic development project, as designated by a government agency, shall not be subject to any mandatory public disclosure requirement, and no document or record containing information about such private economic development project shall constitute a matter of public record. No meeting of a government agency discussing matters related to an economic development project of a private person or entity shall be a public meeting or be required to be opened to the public."
In other words, if Senate Bill 159, sponsored by Sen. Chip Mullis, R-Chickamauga, should become law, your local government could make arrangements to put a toxic-materials manufacturing plant just beyond your backyard, and you wouldn't know anything about it until bulldozers started clearing land.
The tired argument advanced with this kind of legislation is that laws aimed at keeping a prospective industry's or business' plans out of the realm of public knowledge will confer a competitive advantage on the jurisdiction in which those laws are on the books, because the prospect doesn't have to worry that its competitors will get any early knowledge of its expansion or relocation plans.
Senate Bill 159, though, carries that argument to a ridiculous extreme, inasmuch as Mullis is arguing that it's merely an attempt to assure economic development prospects that their "trade secrets" will be protected. Specifically, Senate Bill 159 seeks to characterize a proposed economic development project as a trade secret. That's clearly beyond what reasonable thought, and state law, properly consider a trade secret. State law defines a trade secret as "technical or nontechnical data, a formula, a pattern, a compilation, a program, a device, a method, a technique, a drawing, a process, financial data, financial plans, product plans, or a list of actual or potential customers or suppliers which ... (d)erives economic value ... from not being generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by, other persons ... ."
Obviously, it's only with the most tortured logic that one could conclude an industry's decision on relocation or expansion is a trade secret. Additionally, it's reasonable to expect that an industry would, of its own volition, keep its trade secrets out of any discussion of an economic development initiative.
Thus, it's fair to conclude that the de facto intent of Senate Bill 159 is to give cover to local governments and quasi-governmental organizations that decide to court a problematic enterprise.
But, would this state have to worry about protecting problematic industries and businesses if lawmakers had been working to give it an education system that would produce a well-qualified work force, and also working to provide infrastructure conducive to attracting top-shelf industries and businesses?
In the end, Senate Bill 159 is designed for the sad purpose of making it easy for the state to attract industries and businesses that will exact a heavy price for the state's lack of readiness for top development prospects.

TIMES EDITORIAL
Georgia Sen. Jeff Mullis, the Republican from Chickamauga, obviously thinks residents of his district are competent to put him into office but that they and other Georgia voters have no need to monitor the actions of the state’s elected and appointed officials. Why else would he introduce and vigorously encourage passage of a bill that significantly reduces the right of all Georgians to know what actions are being taken in the name of economic development? Mullis can say what he wants, but his bill promotes the interests of the well-heeled at the expense of ordinary citizens.

Mullis, of course, disagrees, saying that passage of the secrecy bill will allow Georgia to compete more effectively in the admittedly cut-throat business of attracting new industry and other development to the state. That’s not true. Georgia continues to compete effectively in that arena. Indeed, Georgia ranks in the Top 5 in bringing new business to a state, according to the well-respected Site Selection magazine. Given that, there’s no need to reduce the state’s welcome openness in such matters.

Georgia’s obvious success in attracting business, however, doesn’t seem to deter Mullis. He’s determined to create an atmosphere in which Georgia’s public entities and private business will be allowed to promote, to negotiate and to consummate deals without public scrutiny. That’s bad law.

Mullis says the need for secrecy is obvious. He says if the state was more secretive in such matters, it would not have lost the Volkswagen plant to Tennessee. He says the legal requirement that Georgia make public its offers of incentives, abatements, land deals, etc. gives other states an advantage. Nonsense. If Georgia didn’t make the information available, it’s likely companies negotiating for a new site would.

Indeed, it’s common practice, economic development experts say, for a company to use one state’s offer as a bargaining chip to promote a better deal from another state. It is done discreetly, of course, but in negotiations for billion-dollar plants, there really is little that is secret.

The only purpose of the Mullis bill is to keep Georgians in the dark. Why else would it say that “information relating to a private person or entity’s economic development project ... shall not be subject to any mandatory public disclosure requirement, and no document or record containing information about such private economic development project shall constitute a matter of public record.” That’s not all.

The legislation also says the secrecy would prevail until the “private person” or government entity “announces to the general public” that a decision has been reached. In other words, the public would have no right to know until those who make and cut deals want it have access to the details. That, of course, often is too late.

There’s no need for such measures. State law already adequately protects trade secrets and provides ample latitude for officials to effectively negotiate without intrusive public scrutiny. Still, there comes a time when Georgians have a right to know what is being done in their name and, more importantly, what those actions may or may not cost them. And they should have access to that information and have the opportunity to make their feelings about the use of public funds to underwrite private business known before — not after — any agreement is signed.

Mullis has gall; you’ve got to hand him that. Similar legislation was proposed but roundly defeated a couple of years ago. Mullis claims there’s no opposition this time — save from the state’s newspapers. He’s wrong. Most Georgians oppose government secrecy and certainly oppose this effort to extend it. Mullis’ bill — a shameful sop to big business — should be defeated before it can do irreparable harm to the state and those who live in it.

By Robert M. Williams Jr.
If the Georgia General Assembly were a movie, it might be called “Nightmare on Washington Street.”
You think the demon is gone for good — but, no, he always comes back to threaten innocent townspeople.

That’s an apt description for SB 159 by Sen. Jeff Mullis. It’s an unholy resurrection of one of Georgia’s most notorious attempts to hijack good government.

Known earlier as House Bill 218, Mullis’ proposal would allow public officials, economic developers and private business to meet in secret to help “boost our state’s economy and promote job growth.”

A worthy goal, no doubt. Jobs are needed. Mullis appears to hope the economic downturn and accompanying hunger for jobs will blind citizens to the ugly downside of this bill.

Here’s the part Mullis — an economic developer himself — doesn’t talk about. If his bill becomes law, it will also make other things easier for public officials to do in secret. Some examples:
● Land near your home could go from being a serene pasture to a smoke-belching, gear-grinding industrial complex — and you won’t know about the change until it’s too late to raise objection.
● Officials could agree to increase your taxes to pay for incentives given to bring in that industry — and you won’t know that until it’s too late to ask questions.
● Officials could site a hog farm, a landfill, or any number of undesirable developments in your community— and it will all be approved in secret and not revealed until the deal is signed.

● Officials could route a new highway close by your home to serve businesses, sending trucks and more traffic by your driveway. And, you guessed it, you won’t know until after the deal is finalized.

That’s just for starters. Economic development is routinely done with some level of secrecy. Understandably so. Businesses are reluctant to disclose trade secrets or plans to move or expand. That’s not the issue. There are already ways to keep that information private. Whether this law covers just state developers or local authorities, too, the result will be the same. Blanket secrecy.

When public officials start offering tax abatements or financial incentives you’re paying for, that’s when privacy should end and the public allowed to know details. After all, it is your money.

Many of Georgia’s poor, rural counties are preyed upon by developers looking for communities hungry for payrolls, willing to give up relatively cheap land for the promise of jobs. Too often those jobs are in industries that pollute, involve dirty or hazardous products, or have other unattractive aspects.

Communities certainly have a right to pursue such industries if they choose, but residents need to be aware and not have those businesses creep in under a veil of secrecy. Common sense says if a new industry or business is stopped because the public learns the details, odds are that proposal needed to be stopped.

State lawmakers are going to be under tremendous pressure to sacrifice your right to know what developments may be occurring near you. The money and influence of big business speak loudly in the General Assembly. This legislation was stopped only by public outcry just a few years ago. Eager developers keep circling the Capitol, looking for an opening to slip this past an inattentive public and into law.

If you don’t want nasty surprises showing up next door to your home one day, call your legislator. Tell him or her that we’ve seen SB 159 before and the plot isn’t any better this time around.

Secrecy in government is bad public policy and SB 159 rates a “thumbs down.”

Government can only be truly accountable if the citizenry regularly learns what our elected or appointed servants are up to. That’s a concept celebrated during national Sunshine Week, which begins today.
The opposite of that ideal is a secretive government — one whose unseen hands have liberty to pursue actions that may not be in the best interests of the governed.

Georgia Senate Bill 159 would make this undesirable outcome much easier to achieve by tossing a larger cloak of confidentiality over the economic development deals governments often negotiate with private interests. This legislation should die in its tracks before it moves any further around the Gold Dome.

The bill, whose sponsors include Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, decrees that “information relating to a private person or entity’s economic development project ... shall not be subject to any mandatory public disclosure requirement, and no document or record containing information about such private economic development project shall constitute a matter of public record.”

This outrageous blanket grant of anonymity would not be lifted until such time that said “private person” or entity “announces to the general public” that a decision good, bad or indifferent to Georgian interests has been reached.

If passed, this legislation could enable bad or costly ideas to be foisted onto the public after it is too late for their outcry to affect outcomes. So much for government of the people, by the people and for the people.

SB 159 smacks of a “we know what’s best for you” Big Brotherism that should be anathema to the will of a free people. We believe Georgians deserve the chance to apply Ronald Reagan’s oft-quoted adage to “trust, but verify.” That can only happen if taxpayers are clued in on economic development plans as early as prudence allows and while there’s still time to effect changes, if warranted.

That’s less likely to happen if SB 159 drops a concealing cover on economic development in this state.

Georgians should demand better of their lawmakers, and they should do so quickly, given that the bill was voted out of the Senate Economic Development Committee last week.

It will be said that bringing jobs here is the sole motivation behind SB 159. Georgia, the bill’s supporters say, is hamstrung by current requirements that economic incentives be publicized upon request. Competing states can, and have, pried open what should be confidential playbooks by filing open records requests demanding details of incentive packages, some say. “Often, our trade secrets are in the window for everybody to see,” Mullis said during a committee hearing last week.

That reasonably open window hasn’t kept Georgia from luring companies large and small to this pro-business state, even amid the greatest economic decline since the Great Depression. Site Selection magazine this month ranked Georgia No. 5 among states when it comes to drawing businesses.

That said, this editorial board recognizes well that state and local governments aren’t exempt from the forces of a competitive marketplace. That means the practice of using public money to fuel private development will likely be around for a long time as smart businesspeople shrewdly shop for the best possible deal.

That’s the real world. We believe that when taxpayer dollars are used in this way, the details should be made public in a timely manner. It’s the people’s money, after all.

Georgia’s prowess in drawing commerce and jobs shows that existing allowances for secrecy in negotiations seem adequate for safeguarding legitimate business interests.

Even company executives are often quick to say that incentives were not the deciding factor in relocation decisions. To believe that on its face may be naive, but it is beyond argument that many other factors, such as tax rates, quality of life and the availability of a trained work force weigh heavily in these calculations.

Lastly, once companies are lured to Georgia, they become taxpayers with a vested interest in how their money is being spent to lure the next business to town. SB 159 would hinder efforts to learn about deals that could affect their bottom line.

Sen. Mullis told the committee last week that only a pesky news media has so far opposed the bill. That wasn’t the case in 2005 when public heat nixed similar legislation.

Taking Mullis at his word this time around, we believe Georgians should again make their voices heard and help bury this bad idea for a second, and final, time.

Andre Jackson, 
for the Editorial Board

Mullis proposals are bad business

I agree with the Times lead editorial (March 12) that legislation being sponsored by Georgia Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-53rd district) that would allow secret negotiations between state government and private corporations is a bad bill. Too many decisions made in the dark come to bear the heaviest burden on working class people and residential property owners. We should at least be able to see where it’s coming from.

In another bad bill, Mullis is asking us to impose another 1 percent sales tax on ourselves to cover repairs to roads and bridges, something we’re already paying.

Mullis was recently elected by the county boards (Dade, Walker, Chattooga and parts of Catoosa) to chair the Northwest Georgia Economic Committee at a $75,000/year salary and benefits. When asked about double-dipping in public funds, Mullis saw nothing wrong with that, saying he couldn’t support his family on a state senator’s salary. A suggestion about honest work as a supplement was made, but turned down by Mullis.

I can see the possibility of a morally and ethically challenged official using heavy-handed tactics (“I can be very friendly”) to get a plum job like Mullis now has. I’m of the opinion that part of a district’s representatives’ responsibilities should be economic growth, but Mullis disagrees with that, too.

ALLAN BAGGETT

Trion, Ga.

Mullis seeks return to secret politics

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your March 12 editorial titled “Mullis’ Shameful Legislation” concerning Georgia Senate Bill 159. Let’s nip it in the bud.

To fully understand, you have to have at least a working knowledge of “The Chickamauga Mafia.” Jeff had a good mentor who taught him the ropes. He has just served the local body politic their greatest gift — back to the smoke-filled-room governance! Boss Hogg would be right at home!

JACK HART

LaFayette, Ga.