Committee kills bill to hide public employee names
The Legislature's judiciary committee last night killed a bill that would have removed the names of roughly 90,000 public employees from MaineOpenGov.org, a website created by the Maine Heritage Policy Center that aggregates state payroll and vendor payment data.
The Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary achieved a unanimous "ought not to pass" vote on LD 1353, "An Act Regarding Salary Information for Public Employees," after two committee members who were original co-sponsors of the bill, Sen. Larry Bliss (D-South Portland) and Rep. Mark Bryant (D-Windham), reversed their position after an April 30 public hearing on the bill, according to a press release from the Maine Heritage Policy Center.
The Maine Heritage Policy Center did make one concession after committee members expressed concern that certain public employees in "confidentiality programs" should not be included on MaineOpenGov.org for safety reasons, according to the release. The organization said it will work with the Secretary of State to remove any public employee who is a part of its confidentiality program from MaineOpenGov.org.
Watch Tarren Bragdon, CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, testify against LD 1353.
Watch Sen. Lisa Marrache introduce and testify in favor of LD 1353.
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