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Committee considers repealing two duplicative, costly DEED reports; members seek transparency assurances
Summary
DEED asked the committee to repeal two statutory reporting requirements it described as expensive and duplicative of data already posted online; legislators pressed for assurances that data will remain publicly accessible if reports are repealed.
The Jobs Conference Committee reviewed a DEED request to repeal two mandated reports the department called "expensive and duplicative." Devin Bowdre, government relations director at DEED, said one report is submitted every four years and the other every two years, and that the data appear elsewhere on DEED's website, including an online "report card" dashboard tied to the hospitality appropriation.
Senator Joy Heim and Senator Drayheim asked whether the public would still have access to the underlying data if formal reports were repealed. DEED witnesses said the data are available on DEED's external website and via the Legislative Reference Library, and that DEED could keep the most recent report versions online for a period of time. DEED's staff called one of the reports "a quite expensive study" produced by an outside economist and said chairs had questioned whether the legislature should continue paying for that recurring analysis.
Members and nonpartisan staff agreed the information is available in other reports and online dashboards. The committee instructed staff to add the repealer provision to the committee's package; no vote was taken during this hearing. Senator Johan and Representative Baker voiced the core concern: maintaining transparency and public access to the data if the statutory reporting requirement is removed.
