! Taping Bill DEAD !

Well, the army of local government lobbyists (paid for with your taxes) talked enough legislators into killing the taping bill. Visions of reel-to-reel tapes coming to life and chasing local politicians around meeting rooms must have been too terrifying.

The Penninsula Daily News broke the story of the bill's demise. Then the Associated Press picked it up.

This settles the question of whether local governments have something to hide in executive sessions. They have so much to hide that they resorted to hysterical arguments against a bill requiring a $100 digital recorder.

It should be interesting this fall when all the local politicians and legislators who opposed the taping bill are up for re-election and come to their local newspapers grovelling for an endorsement. We suspect that answering a question from the editorial board about the taping bill with the tried-and-true line "of course I support open government, but ..." just won't cut it this year.