Taxpayers have spent about $75,000 during the past two years on the research and other work for what was supposed to be an extensive account of the state House, as well as a separate study of its speakers since 1963.

The work was to be completed Dec. 31. His office had released nothing from or about the history since the new year began.

Black, leader of the House since 1999, said in a prepared statement Wednesday night that he would release nothing, relying on a staff opinion that such records are not public under state law.

The work was the responsibility of Ann Lassiter, 61, a career state employee with no training in history whom Black put in the new job of House historian in May 2005. Her salary was about $50,000 a year.

Lassiter's job ended Dec. 31 amid turmoil.

Disclosures in The News & Observer showed she had headed the House page program and allowed some pages to stay at the home of her son, a felon with a history of drug and alcohol troubles.

Black let her resign, then created the historian's position for her.

Lassiter has said the history job was more than she expected. She has acknowledged that she would not finish the complete work, though she said some was done. She said she had completed work about the speakers.

"The work that she has produced, in my opinion, is not complete and needs additional editing and further research," Black said. "I will turn all of these documents over to the new speaker and he can decide how to best use this research and if additional work needs to be done."

Calls to Joe Hackney of Orange County, the Democratic speaker nominee and presumptive winner, were not returned. A new speaker will be chosen when the Democrat-controlled legislature returns to Raleigh on Wednesday.

Disclosure hurt Black

The disclosure of the arrangement with Lassiter has been widely cited as a factor in Black's losing support in his bid for a record fifth term as speaker.

"Documenting the history of the North Carolina House and our State Government is extremely important for our schoolchildren and future generations," Black said. "The person who has been doing this work ... is obviously not the best person to complete all of the work originally envisioned."

A spokeswoman for Black, Julie Robinson, had not granted several requests by The News & Observer to review Lassiter's work.

Robinson said Wednesday that Black would not release the documents. She cited a provision of state law that says, "Documents prepared by legislative employees upon the request of legislators are confidential."

Walker Reagan, a staff lawyer to the General Assembly, said the law protecting research for lawmakers applies in this case. The law says, however, that such records can become public with the lawmaker's consent. It would also be public if distributed to a committee.

Reagan said the House history is a secret unless Black says otherwise: "It's within his control."

Robinson said Black generally releases records even when the secrecy law applies. But this would be an exception, she said.

"Due to a legal opinion obtained by the Speaker's office and the fact that the work is not completed and ready for public use at this time, the various materials submitted over the last year ... by Ann Lassiter are not public records and are covered by legislative confidentiality," she wrote in a statement.

Reagan said he had reviewed the materials in general, but could not describe any specifics about them.

"I didn't read the history," he said. "I didn't want to. I don't even want to know what happened last year."