Sen. Brian Strickland, the governor’s floor leader, sponsored a bill that calls for the General Assembly to be subject to the state’s open government laws. 

It’s about time someone had the nerve to do what everyone knows is the right thing to do. 

It makes no sense, whatsoever, for the General Assembly to exempt itself from the state’s Sunshine Laws. 

State government requires local governments to be transparent and conduct all the people’s business out in the open. 

What’s right for county commissions, city councils and boards of education is right for the Georgia General Assembly. 

Of course, the bill is going nowhere. 

Yes, it was intended to send a strong message to both the Senate and House in the aftermath of a bitter budget battle with Gov. Brian Kemp. 

The bill was largely symbolic. 

That does not mean, however, that it is without merit or unimportant. 

This is in no way a frivolous piece of business. 

The only reason the bill is DOA is because lawmakers are not going to make themselves subject to open government laws simply because they do not want to be held to the same standards of transparency they require of local government. 

It begs the question: Why not? 

All government — including state government — belongs to the people. 

All the business transacted by government — including the Georgia General Assembly — is the people’s business. 

Our governors should never be able to conceal public business by not providing full access to documents and records or by meeting behind closed doors.

That should include every branch and every level of government — including the Georgia General Assembly. 

Government is only truly of, by and for the people when it is out in front of the people. 

The people of Georgia deserve better than a clandestine state government operating in the shadows. 

There is plenty of blame to go around when it comes to the breakdowns and posturing that have occurred between the administrative and legislative branches during this budget battle. 

If there is a silver lining, it is this call for transparency. 

Strickland’s measure will not get consideration in this abbreviated legislative year, but it should give all state senators and representatives something very serious to think about as they head home. 

Sen. Strickland’s approach to this is so clean, so straightforward and replete with so much common sense. 

The bill does not rewrite the law, it just corrects the law to include the General Assembly in the list of public agencies subject to open government laws, and that’s the way it should be. 

It’s the way it should have always been. 

The Georgia General Assembly should end its exception to the state’s Sunshine Laws.

CNHI Deputy National Editor Jim Zachary is the editor of The Valdosta Daily Times and president of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.