Legislation that would require state and local governments to pay reasonable legal fees when they lose a public records lawsuit cleared a Senate judiciary committee today after an attempt to gut the bill.

State law currently gives the courts limited discretion to not award legal fees to people and businesses who win public records lawsuits if the governmental agency showed substantial justification to deny records. Open government advocates say judges have largely used that discretion to prevent or limit the awarding of legal fees, reports Dan Kane.

"It hasn't operated as people thought it should and it has cost some of the smaller papers in the state a lot of money to protect their rights," said Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat.

State Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat, offered an amendment that would have left that standard in place. He said the current law, passed in 2005, had not been given a chance to prove its effectiveness.

"It was negotiated in good faith," Clodfelter said. "What I don't like about the bill is that is going to be thrown out the window."

Representatives of county and municipal governments and public hospitals supported the amendment, while representatives of the N.C. Press Association and N.C. Association of Broadcasters urged its defeat.

A majority of senators voted the amendment down in a voice vote and then gave the legislation a favorable report. It now goes to the Senate Finance Committee.

The legislation, filed by state Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat, also creates an open government section within the state Attorney General's office to educate public officials about the state's open records and open meetings laws. The unit would also mediate disputes.

You'd pay more to get married and divorced under the House budget.

Budget writers in the House avoided raising taxes, instead adding several free increases, including a $10 hike in the cost of a marriage license and a divorce filing.

Democrats noted that the additional money will go for related services. For example, an increase in the newborn screening fee will help check for additional diseases. 

Republican legislators said after three years of raising taxes in a row, this budget is more likable.

"The last three budgets have been big tax increases with super spending sprees," said House Republican Leader Paul Stam. "This one's on a diet. It's more tempting [to vote for]." 

Other fee increases: Selling stock, building hospitals, removing asbestos and logging. (Char-O) 

Beverly Perdue is now blogging for BlueNC.

The lieutenant governor, who is seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, wrote today on the liberal blog that she is launching a new section on her Web site.

"I wanted y'all to be the first to hear about it," she wrote.

The site, called Building a New North Carolina, will highlight her proposals. It starts with Rural HOPE, an initiative to help rural hospitals buy new equipment through a $2 million reserve fund.

Perdue also noted that she has Flickr and YouTube pages up.

Hat Tip: Anglico 

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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The state Senate rejected the House version of a bill that would have made all forms of compensation for public employees public, save for those working public hospitals.

The House's addition of that exception led the author of the bill, state Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat, to urge his colleagues to vote not to concur, Dan Kane reports.

"There was no resemblance to what I sent over," Hoyle said.

The no vote means a conference committee of House and Senate members will try to reach a compromise before the end of the session.

Hoyle had filed the bill after the Carolinas HealthCare System had refused to provide the total compensation paid to its executives to the Charlotte Observer. The system would only provide salaries.

The newspaper sued, but lost at the appellate level.

That court decision has led other government agencies to begin denying requests for the total compensation paid to their officials.

Legislation cleared the state Senate on Tuesday that would require public hospitals to report all compensation paid to an official, but also allow them to keep private the details involving the purchase of medical practices.

The bill requiring full reporting of compensation passed unanimously, while the bill that closes off medical practice purchase information passed on a 45-5 vote. Both bills move on to the House, Dan Kane reports.

Both bills resulted from public records court battles involving public hospitals. The Charlotte Observer lost a battle to learn the total compensation for Carolinas HealthCare System officials, but got help from the Senate legislation.

Meanwhile, the Wilkes Journal Patriot won a lawsuit to learn about the details of a medical practice purchase by a local hospital, but the other Senate bill would close off such information in the future.