Sounds of the Legislature soon available

Utah legislators will soon expand their presence in cyberspace.

Already broadcasting the floor session from both the Senate and House of Representatives chambers, the Utah Legislature plans to begin providing live audio from all of their committee hearings and task force meetings sometime this summer. By doing so, Utah joins a growing number of states — although still a minority nationally — who are attempting to provide as much public access to their deliberations as possible.

"I like the idea of having this openness, and I've encouraged my body to get used to more of it," Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said. "A lot of the real work is done in the committees, because that is where you get the public input and have the time to really debate an issue."

The move to Internet streaming of committee hearings will not require a big leap of faith for most legislators, since all of their meetings are already recorded and their floor sessions are available as live streaming video. Because of that, legislators are already aware of the benefits of increased exposure — it will be especially valuable to rural legislators, whose constituents often cannot travel to Salt Lake to attend a meeting — as well as the potential pitfalls, House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, said.

"There's already an audio recording of these meetings, so if you say something stupid, it's recorded," Curtis said.

While 45 states provide some sort of Internet broadcast of their floor sessions, Utah will become only the 18th state to offer more extensive coverage of committees. Because many of those states that stream committee hearings limit it to certain committees, such as appropriations, or only the largest meeting rooms, Utah will be one of only about a half-dozen states offering full coverage of committees.

Much of the credit for that can actually be given to timing, since for many states the primary obstacle in streaming meetings is the cost of installing the technology — a problem Utah avoided because committee rooms in the new office buildings at the State Capitol complex were made Internet-ready. Instead of thousands of dollars for renovations strictly targeting technology updates (although those costs are part of the $100 million tab for earthquake proofing of the Capitol building and the construction of the new buildings), the state will only have to pay about $100 annually to digitally archive the meetings.

Although listening to committee debates may seem something only attractive to government geeks and insomniacs, Gene Rose, the public affairs directors for the National Conference of State Legislators, said that the Internet streams of the meetings have been surprisingly well utilized.

"It's pretty popular because a lot of people can't make it to the Capitol," Rose said. The states already doing it "are getting enough use to justify the cost, and once it's up, there is very minimal costs to maintain it."

In many ways, the use of the Internet mirrors the initial forays into the use of public-access television to televise government proceedings, Rose said. Initially, there was a fair amount of concern about the increased access and open government laws when the proceedings were televised, but as it expanded, lawmakers became more comfortable.

The same can be said for Internet broadcasts when they were in their infancy, Rose said, "but as more states adopt this technology, there seems to be less concern."

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