AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 10-7-504, relative to comptroller survey records.
Summary
SB0390 amends Tennessee’s public records law to expand and clarify the confidentiality of certain survey-related materials held by the Comptroller of the Treasury. The bill makes survey records, responses, data, identifying information, and related intra-agency or interagency communications exempt from disclosure when they are received as input for a survey created, obtained, or compiled by the comptroller. It also expressly allows the comptroller to publish aggregate survey data and survey responses that cannot be used to identify individual respondents.
The bill includes an exception for surveys conducted by the Office of Open Records Counsel under Tennessee Code Annotated section 8-4-601, meaning those surveys are not covered by this new exemption. The act takes effect immediately upon becoming law, citing the public welfare, and it amends Tennessee Code Annotated section 10-7-504, which governs records exempt from public inspection under the state’s open records framework.
Impact
This bill narrows public access to a category of records associated with comptroller-administered surveys by adding them to Tennessee’s list of exempt records. It affects the Comptroller of the Treasury, survey participants, and any agencies or entities providing input or communications for those surveys, while preserving disclosure of non-identifying aggregate information. The measure does not change the general open records law wholesale, but it creates a specific confidentiality carveout within Tennessee Code Annotated section 10-7-504.
Sentiment
The available voting history suggests strong bipartisan support and little opposition. The Senate State & Local Government Committee recommended passage unanimously, and the Senate floor adopted the measure 30-0. With no committee transcript available, there is no recorded debate in the provided materials, but the unanimous votes indicate the bill was viewed favorably and as a relatively noncontroversial records-management measure.
Contention
No major points of contention are reflected in the provided record. The only notable policy tension inherent in the bill is between transparency under Tennessee’s public records laws and confidentiality for survey inputs, especially where identifying information or internal communications could be sensitive. The bill addresses that tension by allowing publication of aggregate and non-identifying results while shielding individual responses and related records from disclosure.