New Jersey lawmakers fast track bill that could restrict records access under open records law

The bill’s sponsors pushed back at the notion that it was aimed at limiting access to public records.

They said the legislation is a necessary update to the law that hasn’t been overhauled in more than two decades. It’s also aimed at reducing a wave of requests inundating local governments, particularly by commercial interests, according to the sponsors.

“I look at this as a modernization of OPRA,” state Sen. Paul Sarlo, the bill’s sponsor and budget committee chairman, said. “We want to stop people from profiteering from OPRA on the backs of of the taxpayers.”

In some cases, town officials get overwhelmed by the number of records requests they face, taking over their entire shifts, according to Lori Buckelew, the director of government affairs for the influential League of Municipalities, which represents the state’s towns. Processing and redacting one hour of police body cam footage, for instance, could take three hours, she said.

The bill’s passage comes during Sunshine Week, a time when journalism, civic and other groups spotlight the importance of public records and open government, and just a year after Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and the Democratic-controlled Legislature upended state campaign finance laws to allow for higher contribution and spending limits.

Former state Senate majority leader Loretta Weinberg called the bill an embarrassment and urged lawmakers to oppose it.

“This is a complete gut of OPRA,” she said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “It should be stopped! Please do not turn NJ backwards.”

Access to officials’ emails and other public records regularly results in news stories aimed at shedding light on how the government works.

In 2018, for instance, the records law resulted in the disclosure of emails showing the then-governor’s administration working with the executives of a utility company lobbying lawmakers for a $300 million bailout for its nuclear plants.

The measure also includes $8 million to provide for making records available electronically and for the state’s Government Records Council, which hears disputes over publicizing records.