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Courts gutted Texas' transparency laws. After years of fighting, Abbott signs bill to fix damage

Updated at 3:30 p.m., June 10, 2019: to reflect Abbott signed SB 943, the "Boeing fix" bill

AUSTIN ­- Texas once boasted one of the strongest laws protecting public access to government records, including those that detail how taxpayer money is spent -- and often misspent.

But the law has been slowly defanged in recent decades by opinions from the attorney general's office and the Texas Supreme Court, which have broadly accommodated corporations and government agencies that would rather keep their records secret.

Bipartisan bills passed both chambers to revive the ailing Texas Public Information Act by, among other things, ensuring that government contracts are released to journalists and citizens who want them.

This week, Gov. Greg Abbott signed that measure, which passed out of the Senate twice in 2017 only to be killed in a House committee. It came in response to a 2015 Supreme Court ruling, Boeing vs. Paxton, that essentially said contracts can be kept secret if companies can show that their release might help a competitor. 

Sen. Kirk Watson, an Austin Democrat, authored that bill, which frees up thousands of records that have been withheld in recent years as Texas agencies and corporations took advantage of the loophole.

"If Texans are to hold their public officials accountable, access to public information is essential," Watson said. "I'm proud the Texas Legislature has stood strong for government transparency."

Watson authored another bill to make it clear the public business done via private devices, such as text messages, are a public record that must be released. Government officials routinely use private phones and accounts to frustrate or altogether skirt the records law.

As that bill cleared the lower chamber, Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, tacked on an amendment that would require police departments to release records when a person dies in police custody. Many law enforcement agencies have used a law designed to protect people who are arrested, but cleared of a crime, to keep records secret, sometimes concealing police misconduct.

That measure, opposed by influential police lobbying groups, is still on the governor's desk.

Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, was Watson's partner in crime on transparency bills in the House.

Capriglione said passage of the bill to reopen public access to government contracts represents a "strong statement for transparency in government contracting."

"I am proud to have worked on this legislation over the last two and a half years to bring back the fundamental importance of knowing how our tax dollars are being spent," he said.