Baton Rouge, LA (7/6/2023) – Gov. John Bel Edwards has signed into law a bill to create a new transparency website to give the public in-depth access to a trove of government finance records. It will cover every agency, board, commission, department, courthouse, and government entity at the state and local levels.
House Bill 597, which became Act 446 with Edwards’ signature, requires government bodies to use a new online portal that allows automatic uploads of data from almost any standard accounting software. Financial records from state and local governments will then be available to the public on a single website.
Sponsored by Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Central, the bill was approved during the final hour of the legislative session that ended June 8. Ivey said he was relieved to learn the governor signed the bill he worked on for several years.
“I can breathe now,” he said.
The state currently has a website, Louisiana Checkbook, that already does some of what Ivey’s bill has in store. He actually came up with the idea for that website in 2016 and finally got it approved in a bill two years later. But the current site doesn’t include most of the financial data Ivey wants to make available to the public.
The new website would include records from the judicial branch and from local governments, as well as more detailed financial databases for employment and payroll records, tax incentives, government contracts, agency debt, appropriations, and other information covered under the state’s public records law.
The new upload requirements for agencies and local governments won’t take effect right away. Ivey said it will be a gradual transition.
The Louisiana Legislative Auditor will manage the site with annual funding of $3.5 million and oversight from the Legislative Audit Advisory Council. The initial appropriation could come this year or by July 2024 at the latest, after which the legislative auditor’s office will begin working on the new site.
Source: Louisiana Illuminator, Author: Wes Muller
