Tonight on KATV: Streaming the session -- UPDATE

I'm batting a thousand on the 20 or so bills I've run so far this session, but that's in jeopardy today with HB1611 on the House Rules agenda. This is the bill that will live stream action at the Capitol over the Internet. The lack of support isn't due to the concept but the funding.

It's always difficult to enact something that's not in the governor's proposed balanced budget. Even for a small spending project such as this, funds have to be drawn from a source that is already dedicated elsewhere since it's an ongoing expense (to store bandwidth, etc). I'm proposing to draw the funds from the Miscellaneous Agencies Fund Account direct to DIS and will make a case that the project can be funded without affecting any other budget in that particular account. Even if we can't put this into action this session, at least the discussion is out there on ways to improve transparency at the Capitol. We'll be featured on KATV tonight at 6:00.

Update: You can lower that batting percentage now. I took one to the chin on this one. We'll continue to advocate for Internet broadcasts of proceedings at the Capitol as is done in neighboring Tennessee, Texas, and
Louisiana, but it ain't happening this year. Click the picture above for the KATV story.