When the General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division asks a state agency for information to write a fiscal note on pending legislation, who at the agency is allowed to know about the request, and can the agency tell other agencies or the public?

Plain-English summary

The opinion explains who may learn that North Carolina's Fiscal Research Division asked a state agency for information needed to prepare a fiscal note. Until Fiscal Research prepares and releases the note, a state agency officer or employee may not reveal the request or a document submitted in response to the public or to another state agency, except the Office of State Budget and Management.

Within the agency, an employee may tell another employee the source of the request only when that knowledge is necessary to help prepare the response. Needing a coworker's assistance alone does not establish that the coworker needs to know that Fiscal Research made the request.

An employee who receives or learns of the request may tell their supervisor. The opinion says this supervisor communication is not subject to the need-to-know limit. An employee or supervisor who has learned of the request may also pass it to their own supervisor.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1996. Check current G.S. § 120-131.1 before relying on its confidentiality rules today.

Common questions

May an employee tell a coworker that Fiscal Research made the request?

Only if the coworker needs that information to help prepare the agency's response. The opinion says that needing the coworker's help does not, by itself, justify revealing the request's source.

May an employee tell their supervisor?

Yes. The opinion says any employee who receives or learns of a request is authorized to inform their supervisor, and the information may pass up the agency chain of command.

May the agency disclose the request to another state agency?

The opinion says no before Fiscal Research prepares and releases the note, except to the Office of State Budget and Management.

Does the opinion tell staff how to answer a reporter's inquiry?

No. It states the nondisclosure rule but gives no script, referral instruction, or other guidance for answering an outside inquiry.

Source

• Landing page: https://ncdoj.gov/opinions/disclosure-of-requests-for-assistance-from-fiscal-research-division/

Citations

• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 120-131.1

Original opinion text

• 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