House Passes Watered Down Open Records Bill

The state House approved a different version of the Open Records legislation and now must work out the differences with the Senate.  The House version passed 191-0 and puts off the effective date of the new law for a year.  That means twelve more months of citizens being kept in the dark about their governments.  Another year of refusing to provide open, accountable government.  Both versions exempt the state legislature from the provisions of the bill.

The bill does prohibit governments from charging for research, redaction and copying time.  A court decision last year already has ordered that no more can be charged for public records than the actual cost of reproducing the document or information.  For example the statewide voter registration database is now available for $20 because that's all it costs to put the data on a cd.  We all thank Stephanie Frank Singer of Philadelphia for litigating and winning that issue.