Powerful Senate Republican dismisses effort to close NC’s public records loophole

Public records from legislators can be a treasure trove of information, explaining how decisions were made and how taxpayer money was allocated. (Photo: Clayton Henkel)

In the waning days of the 2023 legislative session, legislative leaders tucked a provision in the $30 billion budget bill giving North Carolina lawmakers the discretion to decide whether work documents could be shared publicly, destroyed or even sold.

For those who may not remember, here’s the power they granted themselves from page 531:

Excerpt from budget bill

The change did not sit well with Senator Graig Meyer (D-Orange) who on Thursday attempted to get his colleagues to address the matter when they were voting on a technical corrections bill to the budget.

Sen. Graig Meyer (Photo: NCGA)

Meyer asked Senator Ralph Hise, the Senate Deputy President Pro Tem, why SB 508 (2023 Budget Tech/Other Corrections) that addressed numerous other technical corrections over 60 pages failed to fix the repeal of the state’s public records law for legislators.

“Why is there no technical correction on the public records provision?” asked Meyer.

“Because that would not be a technical correction. That would be a clear policy change of the policy enacted by the general assembly,” said Hise unmoved.

Meyer told the chamber shielding themselves from the public records law only fosters a lack of transparency and trust in the institution.

“I’ll remind this body but more importantly I’ll remind the public of the state of North Carolina that the General Assembly has exempted itself from all public record standards….leaving public records compliance to be a voluntary matter to the individual members and giving members the ability to both destroy and sell our records paid for by the state, by the public through their taxpayer funds for the work that we do,” said Meyer.

“We have a chance in this correction to the budget to fix that and have not, and I ask this body to continue to consider that as a matter of urgent public responsibility to fulfill our duties to the people who sent us here.”

Meyer is not alone in his criticism of the provision.

Sen. Ralph Hise (Photo: NCGA)

State Treasurer Dale Folwell, a Republican, urged lawmakers last October to change course.

“By allowing individual lawmakers to determine what records are public and what material can be destroyed without ever seeing the sunshine of public view creates a system that does not have standards or accountability,” said Folwell.

The former director of the Open Government Coalition, Brooks Fuller, said shielding legislative documents from public view does not itself cause corruption “but it creates a perfect environment for it to incubate.”

And for now, that perfect environment still exists.

Meyer’s appeal fell on deaf ears Thursday with no effort to address loophole legislative leaders carved out. Five minutes after Meyer brought it up the Senate adjourned for the week.

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