From the Wilmington StarNews (3/14/11): If information is power, it stands to reason that people armed with information have considerable power.
But lobbyists for government agencies apparently don’t want ordinary citizens to wield that kind of power. They argued last week against a Republican-sponsored bill in the N.C. House that would make access to public information a constitutional right.
The Sunshine Amendment is one of the high points so far of this Republican-dominated legislature. If the voters approve the amendment in November 2012, House Bill 87 and its counterpart, Senate Bill 67 would strengthen North Carolina’s open-government laws. In addition, the General Assembly couldn’t close off access to public records without a two-thirds majority of both chambers. Government lobbyists insist that the bill’s supporters are going too far.
According to The News & Observer of Raleigh, the lobbyist for the N.C. School Boards Association used the Columbine killings to highlight the alleged dangers of this amendment. After the killings, officials were shocked to learn that school evacuation plans were public information, and they went to the Colorado legislature to have them sealed. She tried to make the case that it would be just too hard to get the required supermajority, which in turn could put schoolchildren in danger.