09/10/2023
Dear fellow Arkansans. Our Governor has called a special session to decrease taxes. People will be for or against that, and that's not my concern.
However, she has also called this special session to try to gut our FOIA laws. FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) laws are used to hold lawmakers accountable for their actions by making those actions more transparent. Any Arkansas, yes, even you, can submit a FOIA request to Arkansas government agencies to demand information about many things, including how they are spending your tax dollars.
Last legislative session, there were a bunch of proposed bills to narrow what Arkansans are allowed to ask for under FOIA. Most of them failed, due to the fact that Arkansas has some of the strongest FOIA laws in the nation, and Democrats and Republicans have historically supported this transparency. That happened in the last session. Most, if not all, the bills failed because of the votes against them by Democrats and Republicans.
Now, some people have been questioning the costs of many plane trips that Governor Sanders has taken. The Arkansas State Police are in charge of the actions, protocols, and spending of these plane trips. Matt Campbell, who is an expert in Arkansas' FOIA laws, attempted to get information about her past plane trips that appear to be questionable. I don't know all the ins and outs of this, but I believe one example is that she took the plane to Fayetteville, then got back on the plane to fly to Rogers, which is a short distance from Fayetteville. Was this right or wrong? I'm not sure. However, what is wrong is that the ASP have been trying to block fulfilling Campbell's FOIA requests for reasons of Governor's Sander's safety, and the safety of her family. This seems to be appropriate for FUTURE trips, but not for PAST trips. Apparently, they are also blocking Campbell's attempts to FOIA the other passengers on that flight. Is that right or wrong? I can't say for sure. Campbell is currently suing the ASP to get those records, so we will see how that turns out.
However, now Governor Sanders has called this special legislative session and not only does she want FOIA to say that asking for any of this flight information will no longer be allowed, but she wants to make the bill retroactive to the beginning of 2022. This means that none of her flights since she became Governor would be FOIAable (not a real word).
The only things we as Arkansans can do about this right now is to write our legislators, to either ask them how they view the bill, or how they plan to vote on it. If you feel that this bill should not be passed, please tell them that, and ask them to vote against this bill.
Here is the link to find your legislators (House and Senate): https://districtfinder.youraedi.com/
Here is the link to the proposed Senate bill: https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Bills/Detail?id=SB7&chamber=Senate&ddBienniumSession=2023%2F2023S1
Here is the ink to the proposed House bill: https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Bills/Detail?id=HB1003&chamber=House&ddBienniumSession=2023%2F2023S1
I am writing to my legislator today. Please join me in doing the same.
"Democracy dies in the darkness." -Bob Woodward
