Tennessee Info Protection Bill Withdrawn

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam's effort to close off public access to company information used to decide economic development grants has been withdrawn for the year. Republican Senator Bo Watson says the decision followed a failure to reach a compromise. The Haslam administration argues the measure allows the state to ask for more details about businesses seeking cash grants while assuring companies’ proprietary information would not become public. Open government advocates argue that information is already exempt from public records laws.