"A legislator, while in office or after leaving office, shall not be required to reveal or to consent to reveal any document, supporting document, drafting request, or information request made or received by that legislator while a legislator."
--A paragraph slipped into the new state budget (reporting of Travis Fain)
The NC Open Government Coalition said of this particular provision that it "codifies a broad, sweeping legislative privilege that exempts members of the General Assembly from the public records law in its entirety."
Ah! Because secrecy is essential for authoritarianism.
The Republicans also erased an existing state law that makes communications behind redistricting decisions public once the process has wrapped up -- so voters can know which Democratic (or recalcitrant Republican) legislators were fingered for double-bunking or for simple elimination via partisan packing.
A pack of creeps in Raleigh mean to have it all their way. And they assume that the governor will sign the budget bill because he wants Medicaid expansion more than he hates the other shit, so Republicans take the opportunity to slip in all sorts of other mischief.
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