well the Public's access to government records is about to get harder after Governor Murphy on Wednesday signed the controversial Bill overhauling New Jersey's open public records act Municipal leaders hailed the signing as long overdue but Watchdog groups Say by putting pen to paper the governor wiped away years of progress made in government transparency senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports starting today we should stop calling OPRA OPRA we should begin call calling it NOPRA because I do believe that we have fundamentally weakened government transparency here in New Jersey advocacy groups around the state are decrying Governor Murphy's signing of the OPRA bill yesterday that makes several changes to the open public records act in New Jersey we're dismayed we are horrified and frankly disappointed by this news um Governor Murphy has in the past been a partner on some really important progress for New Jersey and this bill takes us significantly back it's a blow to democracy it's a blow to government accountability and transparency among their concerns are Provisions that could subject someone seeking a public record to a lawsuit if the agency providing it finds the request would substantially impair its operations it also puts the cost of requests on the requester particularly if it's for commercial purposes Antoinette Miles with the New Jersey Working Families party says one of their main concerns is really really the specificity that's going to be required when sub submitting a request or not being able to submit uh the same request to multiple agencies which is a common practice um that folks do when seeking public records they say the governor's got some splaining to do which he seemed to agree issuing yesterday what he told reporters was the longest signing statement he's ever written here's his take this one was always going to be a tough call uh it needed to be updated there's no question about that particularly in light of the internet technology speaking with the governor this morning it's clear he's conflicted on this bill although when asked he said it's not part of a compromise deal with legislative leadership to get his corporate Transit fee passed if this was something that I thought was protecting corruption there's no way I would have signed it I would have vetoed it so it has to be you're always trying to find common ground but it also at the same time within the four walls of the bill it has to stand on its own how do you deny that this OPRA bill this now law doesn't embolden bad behavior Bad actors in New Jersey well we're going to watch it clearly and the government records council is going to have a have a very powerful voice in that it's that Council the GRC that Senate co-sponsor Tony Bucco says makes this law work we're putting more money into the GRC we're giving the municipalities the ability to post more documents online which means people on won't even have to file OPRA requests anymore to get many of the documents that they ask for and we're requiring them to deliver their opinions within 30 day within 90 days which used to take 18 months the bill appropriates $6 million to the government records Council to launch and Implement oversight but another concern from opponents is the law only requires municipalities to update their digital records to the extent feasible and they'll have to do it with a $4 million appropriation that'll be split between local and County governments and school districts that's nearly 1,00 entities it's not nearly enough says Mike Cerra from the New Jersey League of municipalities but they're thrilled to see the Bill signed into law years of meeting with legislators uh to to to highlight issues and concern that we we wanted to see addressed and many of them not all of them but many of them have been addressed we wish the bill had gone further to address you know commercial Data Mining and and and data Brokers and and so forth so so uh our work isn't done yet next Governor Murphy will put names forward to sit on the government records Council which he says we can expect to see very soon in Trenton I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight news [Music]