Senate Bill sb1406c1

    Florida Senate - 2002                           CS for SB 1406

    By the Committee on Regulated Industries; and Senator Pruitt





    315-1953-02

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to public records; providing an

  3         exemption from public-records requirements for

  4         information received by a taxing authority or

  5         its agency in connection with certain audits of

  6         the records of a provider of telecommunication

  7         services; providing for future legislative

  8         review and repeal; providing that the act is

  9         remedial and applies regardless of when the

10         audit was begun; providing a finding of public

11         necessity; providing an effective date.

12

13  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

14

15         Section 1.  If an audit of a telecommunications service

16  provider is conducted under section 36 of chapter 2001-140,

17  Laws of Florida, and section 166.234, Florida Statutes, any

18  information received by the taxing authority or its agent in

19  connection with the audit is confidential and exempt from

20  section 119.07(1), Florida Statutes, and Section 24(a) of

21  Article I of the State Constitution. This section is subject

22  to the Open Government Sunset Review Act of 1995 in accordance

23  with section 119.15, Florida Statutes, and shall stand

24  repealed on October 2, 2007, unless reviewed and saved from

25  repeal through reenactment by the Legislature.

26         Section 2.  Section 1 of this act is remedial in nature

27  and applies to all audits conducted under section 36 of

28  chapter 2001-140, Laws of Florida, and section 166.234,

29  Florida Statutes, regardless of whether the audit was begun

30  before or after the effective date of this act.

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 2002                           CS for SB 1406
    315-1953-02




  1         Section 3.  The Legislature finds that it is a public

  2  necessity that any information received by a local government

  3  in connection with an audit of a public service tax collected

  4  by a telecommunications service provider should be exempt from

  5  disclosure because disclosing such information would adversely

  6  affect the business interests of the telecommunications

  7  service provider by harming the provider in the marketplace

  8  and would compromise the security of the communications

  9  network. In addition, disclosure of such information would

10  impair competition within the telecommunications industry.

11  Disclosing information that reveals the business interests of

12  a telecommunications service company creates an unfair

13  advantage for its competitors. Competitors can use such

14  information to impair full and fair competition in the

15  telecommunications marketplace to the disadvantage of

16  consumers of telecommunications services. Thus, the public and

17  private harm in disclosing this information significantly

18  outweighs any public benefit derived from such disclosure and

19  the public's ability to scrutinize or monitor agency action is

20  not diminished by requiring that this information be

21  confidential.

22         Section 4.  This act shall take effect upon becoming a

23  law.

24

25          STATEMENT OF SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES CONTAINED IN
                       COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
26                             SB 1406

27

28  Deletes the requirement that information received from tax
    audits of telecommunications service providers must be
29  provided to the Department of Revenue upon request.

30

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.