Report Title:

Government Records; Photocopying Fee

Description:

Repeals minimum 5¢ per page copying fee and establishes 25¢ per page copying fee cap for government records that do not exceed 8-1/2 x 14. (SD1)

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

802

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

S.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to government records.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that access to government records is essential to public participation in a democracy, and that making photocopied records available to the public facilitates this access. While the legislature recognizes that the charging of fees is necessary to recover the costs of photocopying, it believes that these fees should be minimized and should not act as a barrier to public access. Therefore, the abolishment of minimum fees for government records is necessary to allow agencies to provide records free of charge, and the establishment of a fee ceiling is necessary to prevent excessive charges for government records.

The purpose of this Act is to abolish the minimum per page copying fee and to establish a per page fee cap for state and county government records.

SECTION 2. Section 92-21, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§92-21 Copies of records; other costs and fees. Except as otherwise provided by law, a copy of any government record, including any map, plan, diagram, photograph, photostat, or geographic information system digital data file, which is open to the inspection of the public, shall be furnished to any person applying for the same by the public officer having charge or control thereof upon the payment of the reasonable cost of reproducing such copy. Except as provided in section 91-2.5, the cost of reproducing any government record, except geographic information system digital data, shall not be [less than 5] more than 25 cents per page, sheet, or fraction thereof[.]; provided that the document page size does not exceed eight and one-half inches by fourteen inches. Government agencies, departments, or offices that routinely work with documents that exceed eight and one-half inches by fourteen inches shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 setting forth the maximum cost per page, sheet, or fraction thereof. The cost of reproducing geographic information system digital data also shall be in accordance with rules adopted by the agency having charge or control of that data. Such reproduction cost shall include but shall not be limited to labor cost for search and actual time for reproducing, material cost, including electricity cost, equipment cost, including rental cost, cost for certification, and other related costs. All fees shall be paid in by the public officer receiving or collecting the same to the state director of finance, the county director of finance, or to the agency or department by which the officer is employed, as government realizations; provided that fees collected by the public utilities commission pursuant to this section shall be deposited in the public utilities commission special fund established under section 269-33."

SECTION 2. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.