Jackson Free Press

We heard a lot about sunshine during the 2011 legislative session. Mainly, it was in the context of a proposal Republicans were pushing to ostensibly boost transparency in the Mississippi attorney general's office.

Their legislation—the Sunshine Act—did two main things. First, it allowed state agency heads to hire outside lawyers and bypass the AG's office, which the state Constitution says is supposed to handle the state's legal affairs. Second, it required the AG to disclose all third-party contracts with outside law firms on its website.

Since last year, the Republican-led Legislature's appetite for sunshine has slowed.

At a Jan. 23 meeting of a House Education Subcommittee, its chairman, Rep. John Moore, R-Brandon, reportedly huddled with several committee members to conduct the public body's deliberations in whispers, out of earshot of citizens who attended the meeting.

Right now, a proposal to exempt concealed-weapon permit holders from open-record laws is zipping through the Legislature at warp speed, faster even than the highly coveted charter-school bills. The proposal has already passed the House, and is on track to become one of the first bills to reach Gov. Phil Bryant's desk for his signature.

Last week, the House also passed HB 324, which would also exempt from the Public Records Act certain information the state insurance commissioner uses to rate insurance companies as well as shield that information from subpoena. Rep. Sherra Lane, D-Waynesboro, one of the few voices who expressed opposition to HB 324, correctly called the measure unprecedented.

As government watchdogs and keepers of a public trust, we are alarmed and concerned that these actions represent a regression from the once-ubiquitous rhetoric around the Capitol about letting the sun shine on Mississippi government.

In its 2013 report card on state transparency, the Virginia-based nonprofit Sunshine Review, Mississippi ranked among the bottom six in terms of government openness with a letter grade of C.

Last year's Sunshine Review rankings, which also graded states on number of integrity indicators, scored Mississippi particularly poor in categories of public access to information (D+), political financing (F) and executive-branch accountability (D+).

With grades like these, Mississippi could benefit from a little remediation in its openness and accountability factors. With the session almost a third over, we won't hold our breath for any significant improvements to Mississippi public-record laws. The very least legislative leaders could do is to follow their own rhetoric from last year's Sunshine Act debate and stop trying to hide their actions from the people of Mississippi.