House Bill hb1487c1

    Florida House of Representatives - 2002             CS/HB 1487

        By the Council for Smarter Government and Representatives
    Attkisson and Ritter





  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 review and repeal of

  8         the exemption; 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.

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

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15         Section 1.  If an audit of a telecommunications service

16  provider is conducted under s. 36 of chapter 2001-140, Laws of

17  Florida, and s. 166.234, Florida Statutes, any information

18  received by the taxing authority or its agent in connection

19  with the audit is confidential and exempt from s. 119.07(1),

20  Florida Statutes, and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State

21  Constitution. This section is subject to the Open Government

22  Sunset Review Act of 1995 in accordance with s. 119.15,

23  Florida Statutes, and shall stand repealed on October 2, 2007,

24  unless reviewed and saved from repeal through reenactment by

25  the Legislature.

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

27  and applies to all audits conducted under s. 36 of chapter

28  2001-140, Laws of Florida, and s. 166.234, Florida Statutes,

29  regardless of whether the audit was begun before or after the

30  effective date of this act.

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






    Florida House of Representatives - 2002             CS/HB 1487

    405-180A-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.

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