The Arkansas Senate has voted to shield publicly owned utility ratepayer information from release, months after the state Supreme Court said the records weren't exempt from the open records law.
The Senate voted 33-0 Wednesday in favor of legislation that would exempt municipally owned ratepayer's addresses, phone numbers and usage data from the state Freedom of Information Act. The measure now heads to the House.
The legislation would also exempt municipal utilities' plans for generation, transmission and distribution systems from the FOI law.
The proposal by Republican Sen. John Cooper of Jonesboro is in response to a state Supreme Court ruling last year that a municipal utility could not withhold a ratepayer's home address. The court said whether to exempt such records was a decision up to the Legislature.
