Text in 2023 NC budget creates controversy over open records

CHARLOTTE — Legislators in North Carolina are still working on passing the state budget, but one section in the 600-page bill would make it harder for you to know what’s happening in the state government.

Channel 9 found the paragraph on page 531, deep in the document.

It reads, in part: “The custodian of any General Assembly record shall determine ... whether a record is a public record and whether to turn over to the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, or retain, destroy, sell, loan, or otherwise dispose of, such records.”

Simply put, that means legislators could choose what records are released publicly, or they could choose to get rid of them altogether, advocates for open journalism say.

Government transparency advocates and news media organizations are criticizing the proposal. The North Carolina Open Government Coalition wrote, “The final budget essentially exempts the General Assembly from the Public Records Act.”

The North Carolina Association of Broadcasters sent a letter to legislative leaders arguing that the bill “would permit the General Assembly to operate in secrecy, shielded from public view and accountability to those whom the members of the Assembly were elected to serve.

Channel 9 is a member of the NCAB, and we use open records requests frequently to obtain documents that otherwise wouldn’t be released.

In July, Channel 9′s open records requests led to a special report on a cyber attack that knocked out dispatch systems in Kannapolis. And the city of Charlotte is still putting up a fight over a Channel 9 records request over a closed-door meeting surrounding the George Floyd protests.

North Carolina state Senate Leader Phil Berger said Wednesday that the proposal is meant to be narrow, dealing with the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and archive issues.

Transparency advocates believe this will lead to reduced access to public information.

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