Unlike most states, Kentucky does not require filed or advancing bills to be accompanied by a financial analysis. Sometimes lawmakers ask for them, and sometimes they are “confidential.”
Courts do not, in general, indicate in advance how they will rule on a issue not yet before them. Nor should the Kentucky Attorney General, writes retired Kentucky assistant attorney general Amye Bensenhaver.
Legislation to amend the Kentucky Open Records Act cleared a Senate committee despite bipartisan criticism that it would undermine government transparency, though a controversial part of the bill was rejected.
Amye Bensenhaver, of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition, said the bill is a reaction to recent rulings by Kentucky courts that discussions of public business conducted on private devices are subject to the state’s open records law.
The League's report examined how often the General Assembly did not follow its established process to give Kentuckians time to review and comment on proposed legislation.
Open government advocate Amye Bensenshaver observes that a circuit court judge rejected Cameron's disregard for over four decades of case law and attorney general decisions.
