More governor's records will be open as new laws take effect
BATON ROUGE - Nineteen new or rewritten state laws take effect in January.
Fewer records in the Louisiana governor's office will be shielded from the public. Rules governing the state's film tax credit program will be tightened. Stricter state marriage license requirements, aimed at barring illegal immigrants from getting married in Louisiana, kick in.
Most of the changes take hold with the start of the new year, but others instead begin with the new terms of office for elected officials, Jan. 11.
For example, new limits on public records exemptions given to governors start when Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards is sworn into office.
An exemption that gives executive branch departments a six-month blackout period on budget documents will disappear, along with language that hides records considered part of a governor's "deliberative process."