Fees for obtaining public records will be dramatically lowered if Gov. Christopher Christie signs legislation that was unanimously passed by both houses of the state legislature last month in response to residents’ complaints.
The Open Public Records Act, or OPRA, is the name of the New Jersey law guaranteeing taxpayer access to public records in the state. However, after the law was passed in 2002, some towns set exorbitantly high copying fees for residents to get information, such as 75 cents per letter-sized page. And in some cases, state agencies charged $10 per page.
Advocates for information access said these costs prohibited many people from getting the information they needed.
Besides copying costs, the state law also allowed governments to charge residents for the time it took government employees to gather the information, although activists argued that the work was already being paid by taxes.
“These Assembly floor amendments change the fees … to 5 cents per letter-size page or smaller” – Joseph Cryan
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So state legislators introduced Assembly Bill 559. It proposed lowering the fees for government documents to 10 cents per page, but also added fees for copies of e-mails and faxes – which currently are free.
Recently, on the floor during the vote, the state Senate and Assembly agreed to do away with the fee for emails and faxes and to reduce the cost of ordinary copies to 5 cents.
The change now goes to Gov. Christopher Christie for his approval. But it is unclear whether Christie intends to sign the legislation into law. He originally wanted state government exempted from the lower rates.
“These Assembly floor amendments change the fees for copies of government records under the open public records act [OPRA] to 5 cents per letter size page or smaller, and 7 cents per legal size page or larger,” said Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Cryan recently. “The amendments also provide that access to electronic records and non-printed materials will be provided free of charge, but the public agency may charge for the actual costs of any needed supplies such as computer discs.”
Hoboken’s Mason pushed for lower fees
Hoboken Councilwoman Beth Mason came head to head with the problem a few years ago before she was an elected official. At the time, she sought public information and received a hefty bill in return.
“I was trying to get the budget for the [Hoboken] Housing Authority and it cost me $60,” she said.
Mason launched a series of lawsuits that eventually brought the fees down for local government, arguing that the cost should be based on the materials used to provide the copies, such as paper and toner – not labor costs.
“As taxpayers, we’re already paying those costs,” she said.
Courts sided with Mason, but it was a town-by-town battle.
Mason realized that if costs for access to public information were to be brought down, the best way to do that would be on a state level.
Cryan agreed and drafted legislation that would reduce the per-page costs associated with obtaining public records.
The courts have established the “actual cost of copies to be in the neighborhood of 2 to 8 cents,” Mason said recently.
Now, the final decision is in the hands of the governor.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.