partials and locals

I am calling a partial in another controller (benefits) like..

<%= render :partial => "benefits/b_index", :collection => @benefits,           :locals => {:hide_list => true} %>

in the partial i just cant seem to access the local variable

<% if hide_list == true %> throws unknown variable error and <% if @hide_list == true %> shows @hide_list as nil

what am i doing wrong?