Senate leaders say they have reached agreement with the House on two public records bills.
One would make sure all compensation for most public employees would be public, while the other would prevent the public from seeing the terms of medical practice purchase agreements with public hospitals, Dan Kane reports.
Both bills arose from lawsuits by newspapers against public hospitals that had denied information requests. The bills are being merged into one piece of legislation that cleared the Senate this afternoon but has yet to be taken up in the House.
State Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat, said House and Senate conferees settled on a compromise that requires public hospitals to report the total compensation for the top five administrators and the top five salaried officials.
That mirrors what private nonprofit hospitals have to provide in their tax returns, which are public record, Hoyle said.
Update: The House and Senate overhwelmingly approved the bills, which now head to the governor.
More after the jump.
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Other public hospital employees would only be required to disclose salaries.
All other public employees would have to report total compensation.
Hoyle filed the bill after The Charlotte Observer lost a lawsuit to obtain the total compensation of executives at Carolinas HealthCare System.
The other part of the merged bill, closing off medical practice purchase contracts, comes after a Wilkes County newspaper won a lawsuit requiring the county hospital there provide the information.
Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat, wants that information kept private to help public hospitals better compete with private hospitals that do not have to provide the information.
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