Topeka ? Senators heard no opposition Thursday to a proposed change in the Kansas Open Records Act that would require the full disclosure of public employees’ compensation.

Supporters and legislators call the measure the “Lew Perkins Provision,” named for the Kansas University athletic director. Several media organizations, including The Associated Press and The World Company, which publishes The Lawrence Journal-World, won a lawsuit against the university last year requiring it to disclose Perkins’ compensation package.

The proposed change would place into state law the Douglas County District Court ruling, which required the disclosure of all compensation records, even those from anonymous gifts and other private sources.

Ralph Gage, chief operating officer of The World Company, told the Senate Elections and Local Government Committee that full disclosure was the public’s right.

“The citizens of the state have the right to know how much their state officials are being paid, and by whom, and for what,” Gage said.

Gage said The World Company spent $40,000 in legal fees to gain access to the records, while the university spent approximately $27,000, all but about $10,000 of which was covered by insurance. Gage said fighting for access to records in court was costly for individuals and the media but also for taxpayers, who end up financing the public agencies’ defense.

The proposal also was supported Thursday by the Kansas Press Assn. and the Kansas Association of Broadcasters, both of whom helped develop the language in the bill in consultation with the state attorney general’s staff.

The committee took no action on the bill. The chairman, Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, gave no time frame for advancing the bill for debate in the Senate.

Another proposal before the committee faced criticism, however. It would require any private or nonprofit organization receiving at least 50 percent of its revenues from government sources to open their records to the public.

Representatives of contractors, health care providers, engineers and architects said they could be forced to jeopardize their businesses by divulging proprietary information.

Jerry Slaughter, a lobbyist for the Kansas Medical Society, said physicians and hospitals receive much of their income from the state and federal governments, reimbursing them for services they provide to elderly, disabled or low-income patients. Paperwork for those programs already is a burden, he said, and opening records could force many providers to quit providing services.

Chip Wheelen, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of Osteopathic Medicine, proposed amending the bill so that it applied only to nonprofit organizations.

Other opponents, including representatives of chambers of commerce and the tourism industry, said disclosing how much money is spent to lure a business or convention to a region could endanger efforts to attract economic development to a region in a competitive market.