March 14, 1996
Clay T. Hines Legal Affairs North Carolina Community College System Raleigh, NC 27602
Re: Advisory Opinion; Disclosure of Requests for Assistance from Fiscal Research Division;
G.S. § 120-131.1.
Dear Clay:
You have written to ask our opinion regarding when may an employee who has knowledge of a request for assistance with the preparation of a fiscal note from the Fiscal Research Division disclose that request to other persons.
G.S. § 120-131.1 provides that requests from the Fiscal Research Division of the General Assembly to assist in the preparation of a fiscal note and all documents prepared in response to such requests shall be confidential. The requirement that such requests be kept confidential, however, is not absolute. G.S. § 120-131.1(a) states, in pertinent part:
A request made to an employee of a State agency other than the General Assembly by an employee of the Fiscal Research Division for assistance in the preparation of a fiscal note is confidential. An employee of a State agency other than the General Assembly who receives such a request or who learns of such a request made to another employee of his or her agency shall reveal the existence of the request only to other employees of the agency to the extent that it is necessary to respond to the request, and to the employee’s supervisor and to the Office of State Budget and Management.
The words of this statute are unambiguous and its purpose is plain: to limit disclosure of information requested by the Fiscal Research Division for the purpose of preparing fiscal notes until the notes are actually prepared and released. Some questions, however, have been raised about the manner in which this statute applies in particular circumstances, and our opinion has been requested. Bearing in mind the plain words and purpose of this statute, it is our opinion that it applies in the following manner:
- No officer or employee of any state agency may reveal the existence of a request from the Fiscal Research Division for information it needs to prepare a fiscal note to any member of the public or any officer or employee of any other state agency, except the Office of State Budget and Management, until such time as the Fiscal Research Division actually prepares and releases the fiscal note. Likewise, no officer or employee of any agency may reveal any document submitted to the Fiscal Research Division for preparation of a fiscal note to any member of the public or any officer or employee of any other agency, except the Office of State Budget and Management, until such time as Fiscal Research actually prepares and releases the fiscal note.
- In the event an employee needs assistance from another employee of his or her agency in providing the information requested by Fiscal Research, the employee may reveal the source of the request to the other employee only if it is necessary for the employee to know about the
source of the request. The mere fact that an employee’s assistance is necessary to prepare a response to a request is not sufficient in and of itself to permit disclosure of the fact that the request came from Fiscal Research. The employee may disclose the fact that Fiscal Research made the request only if that disclosure is necessary to facilitate a response to the request.
3. The foregoing "need-to-know" limitation does not apply to communications between an employee and his or her supervisor. Any employee who receives a request, or who obtains knowledge of a request, is authorized to inform his or her supervisor about the request. There is no limit on this authorization and we assume that in the ordinary course of events and consistent with normal administrative practices and procedures employees will inform their supervisors of such requests. In that fashion, information regarding a request will be passed up the agency’s chain of command.
Finally, G.S. § 120-131.1(a) does not limit the authority to disclose a request for assistance from
Fiscal Research to the employee who initially received the request from Fiscal Research. The
statute also provides that any employee who learns of the request may inform other employees
who need to know of the request, his or her supervisor, or the Office of State Budget and
Management. Accordingly, once an employee or supervisor has learned that the Fiscal Research
Division has made a request for assistance with the preparation of a fiscal note, that employee or
supervisor may inform his or her supervisor of the request irrespective of their absolute need to
know.
Edwin M. Speas, Jr.
Senior Deputy Attorney General
Thomas J. Ziko
Special Deputy Attorney General