What happens when a good law designed to ensure government transparency to the public outlives its usefulness to the public? That’s at the crux of a proposal that’s been floating around the state Legislature the last few sessions, and it’s tangled up with historic shifts in technology, in journalism and in the very connective tissue of communities across Tennessee.
As in most states, Tennessee has laws on the books to ensure that the public knows when government meetings will be held, when certain laws are being proposed and the like. City and county governments, for example, are required to publish in a local “newspaper of general circulation” their plans to hold meetings. If they fail to do that, the meeting can’t be held. If they meet anyway, any action that they take — any vote that is held — can be voided.
That could be huge if, for example, your government wants to quietly pass a tax increase.
