HB89 Alabama 2019 Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Randall Shedd

Republican

Session

Regular Session 2019

Title

Professional licensing Boards, self-sustaining, bds, agencies, and commissions exempted from publishing expenditures through Comptroller website, required to post expenditures on bd, agency, or commission website, Sec. 41-4-65 am'd.

Summary

HB89 requires self-sustaining state professional licensing boards to publicly publish their expenditures and revenues online, either via the Comptroller’s database or on the board’s own website.

What This Bill Does

The bill amends 41-4-65 to require each self-sustaining licensing board to choose, each year, whether to publish expenditures on the Comptroller’s searchable public database or on its own website. If a board does not use the Comptroller database in a given year, it must publish expenditures and all revenue on its website in a searchable format, including details like amount, date, payor, payee, and a breakdown by expense object and, if available, class/item levels. It also requires the information to be presented clearly (with charts if appropriate) and downloadable, while limiting what personal data can be shown (e.g., payee addresses are generally restricted to county). The Department of Finance must link to the data from the state’s public pages, and boards may adopt rules to implement these needs, with confidentiality protections and a vendor confidentiality review process.

Who It Affects

• Self-sustaining professional licensing boards, agencies, and commissions: must publish expenditure and revenue data either in the Comptroller’s database or on their own website, annually deciding the method and implementing the required disclosures.
• The general public (including licensees and vendors): will have access to detailed, searchable expenditure and revenue information, with protections for confidential data and a process for confidentiality challenges.

Key Provisions

• Requires self-sustaining licensing boards to publish expenditures (and revenues) either on the Comptroller’s online database or on the board’s public website; the choice must be made annually and recorded in board minutes.
• If a board does not publish on the Comptroller database in a given year, it must publish expenditures, contracts, grants, and all revenue on its own website in a searchable format, including amount, date, payor, payee, and object/class_item breakdown where available.
• Public data must be accessible, downloadable, and presented in a user-friendly way, potentially using graphs; access to payee addresses is restricted except for county location and other confidential information remains protected.
• Boards and the Comptroller provide confidentiality protections; vendors can request confidentiality, triggering a hearing process with a reasonableness standard and court review.
• The Department of Finance must prominently link to the data on the state’s public homepage, and each board must include a prominent link to the data on its own site; boards may adopt implementing rules.
• Effective date: the act becomes law on the first day of the third month after passage and approval.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 24, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.

Subjects

Professional Licensing Boards