HB 659 North Carolina House · 2025-2026 Session

Local Government Spending Transparency.

HB 659, titled "Local Government Spending Transparency," aims to increase public access to financial information from local governments in North Carolina. The bill requires all local government invoices to be itemized, detailing the payee, amount, items purchased, and performance dates. These quarterly invoices must be publicly available via a link on the government's website or as physical copies for municipalities without a website. Additionally, local government websites would need to provide links to the top three bids for projects, services, or goods purchased with tax dollars, with quarterly updates. Both invoices and bids are to be unredacted unless legally required, and these provisions take effect on July 1, 2025.

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Apr 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Apr 1, 2025 Last action May 6, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Edition 1 → Edition 2 · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was amended to clarify how local governments without websites must make invoices public, requiring them to display copies in a publicly accessible area at their administrative offices instead of a binder on a counter. Additionally, the effective date was expanded to explicitly cover invoices paid on or after July 1, 2025, ensuring the transparency rules apply to the payment date rather than just the invoice date.

Scope change

The scope of public access for non-web-based municipalities was broadened from a specific counter location to any publicly accessible area within administrative offices, and the bill's applicability was clarified to include invoices paid on or after the effective date.

REQUIREMENT

Changed the requirement for local governments without websites to display invoices from a binder on a counter to a publicly accessible place at administrative offices.

TIMELINE

Added language stating the act applies to invoices paid on or after the effective date of July 1, 2025.

TECHNICAL

Updated the section number from 159-42.2 to 159-33.3 and renumbered subsections accordingly.

Floor votes

How they voted

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

May 6, 2025

Committee

Re-ref Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

lower

May 5, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav

lower

Apr 29, 2025

Committee

Re-ref Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

lower

Apr 29, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav Com Substitute

lower

Apr 15, 2025

Committee

Re-ref Com On State and Local Government

lower

Apr 15, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav

lower

Apr 2, 2025

Committee

Ref to the Com on Judiciary 1, if favorable, State and Local Government, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

lower

Apr 1, 2025

Introduced

Filed

lower

3 primary · 3 co-sponsors