Lawmakers debate expanding livestreaming rules amid cost concerns

Representative Mike Johnson introduced HB 615 as a step to broaden public access to government meetings by requiring more bodies that can tax or adopt rules to livestream and retain recordings for two years. He argued the practice is now routine for many local governments and ‘‘it just comes down to a vote as to whether or not you want the public to have the right to be able to see what goes on,’’ and asked the committee to weigh transparency against modest costs.

Local government representatives, including Hannah Geddes of the Louisiana Municipal Association and Guy Cormier of the Police Jury Association of Louisiana, told the committee the proposal sweeps in many non‑elected boards run largely by volunteers and would impose significant administrative and cybersecurity costs. Geddes said the bill ‘‘creates an expensive and impractical mandate on small local entities that often operate with limited staff, volunteer members, and minimal budgets.’’ Cormier gave a cost estimate for typical setups and argued social‑media platforms are not reliable record‑retention solutions, saying platform policies could change and ‘‘they could say we're not gonna do anything government anymore.’’

Witnesses urged tailoring the measure or identifying funding. Johnson said the bill trims earlier requirements (removing a lawyer mandate) and framed the change as a modest expansion of an existing law that has increased public participation: ‘‘people are participating more now by being able to watch the meetings than they ever did before.’’ The committee did not take final action on HB 615 and asked staff and members to explore cost estimates and possible implementation details before the next session.