New Jersey legislators advance bill overhauling state’s open records law

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey lawmakers pushed ahead Thursday with legislation overhauling the state’s public records access law, reigniting debate over the revisions that stalled earlier this year amid vocal opposition from civil rights and other groups.

The Democrat-led state Senate’s budget committee approved the amended legislation Thursday, with its Assembly counterpart set to take up the bill on Friday.

The bill’s revival comes after Republican minority leader Anthony Bucco signed on to co-sponsor the measure and following agreement on concessions by an influential group behind the legislation that represents the state’s more than 500 towns and cities.

Among the proposed changes is the end of a prohibition on commercial record requests, by real estate developers for instance. Instead, the new measure would allow government clerks up to 14 days to respond to requests for records and allow for commercial interests to pay up to twice the cost of producing the records.

“When both sides are potentially not thrilled you have a good compromise,” Senate Budget Committee chairman Paul Sarlo said.

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