Pssst...your government is keeping secrets

Want to know what you don't know?

In North Carolina, government records by law are "the property of the people."

Except when they're not.

North Carolina has a Public Records Law that ostensibly grants public access to information gathered by state and local agencies. But secrecy rules strewn throughout other North Carolina laws allow state and local officials to keep numerous records out of the public's hands.

Each secrecy law prevents citizens from learning, copying or spreading information the government gathers with tax money for public purposes.

Many of the exclusions have wide support -- keeping personal medical records private, for example, as well as library-user records, trade secrets, taxpayer information and Social Security numbers.

Some state secrets are obscure: How many pigs each farmer owns, for example, is confidential. So is the amount of commercial fertilizer merchants sell.

Others have sparked controversy, such as a law that lets state officials withhold details of corporate tax subsidies for five weeks after the deals are announced.

Some of the tightest lids on information serve powerful interests: hospitals, doctors, lawyers, government workers.

A survey a decade ago by lawyers in the Attorney General's Office turned up 316 state laws, many overlapping, that deny the public access to government information. Since then, legislators have added more, typically several a year.

Last year, the General Assembly tweaked a law to clarify how quickly the government has to reveal information about the subsidies. At the same time, lawmakers denied the public access to five other kinds of records, including the findings of a background investigation into the company that will run the state lottery.

State Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat who sponsored several revisions, said the state lacks "a good clear statute" on governmental openness.

"It's pretty much a hodgepodge," Clodfelter said. "It's all over the statute books, and some of it is in case law. We really need to sit down and rewrite the thing from top to bottom."

Sunshine advocates agree the law needs streamlining -- and they say it's time to shift it toward more transparency.

"I see a never-ending wave of legislation aimed at rolling back the public's right to know," said Raleigh attorney John Bussian, the lobbyist for the N.C. Press Association. "There are darn few lawmakers willing to sponsor legislation to improve public access."

Fighting for the facts

Openness promotes good government and discourages waste and corruption, its advocates say.

"Government operates best in the sunshine," said Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat. "It's easier to make a decision in the back room when nobody's looking. The process is more difficult when you shine the light. But the results are mostly better."

In countless other ways, openness empowers citizens.

Parents concerned about their children's school reassignments rely on public records.

Taxpayers tracking state spending abuses depend on disclosures of government actions.

Residents interested in their local government can attend meetings and demand records to find out what's going on.

Gail Julian did. The Moore County retiree and four of her friends waged a two-year battle to open law-enforcement records and the council meetings of their town, the Village of Whispering Pines, population 2,100.

In the end, a judge ruled last year that the town had broken the law at least seven times.

"Without the sunshine laws, we've got nothing," said Julian, 73, a former corporate personnel manager. "The government ceases to be a representative democracy and becomes a ruler."