Report Title:

Government Record Copying Fees; 25 Cents Per Page Limit

 

Description:

Provides that cost of copies of government records provided to the public shall not exceed 25 cents per page.

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

838

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to fees.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that present law on government copying fees requires that both State and counties charge at least a minimum of five cents per page copying fee. The legislature further finds that the lack of a specific cap on fees leaves open the possibility that fees charged by public agencies will provide profit rather than reimbursement to agencies and will reduce public access to government documents. The legislature further finds that government copying fees should not be arbitrary, unfair, unnecessarily high, unpredictable, or unstable.

The purpose of this Act is to place a cap on government copying fees within both state and county government.

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] five cents and not more than 25 cents per page, sheet, or fraction thereof. The cost of reproducing geographic information system digital data shall be in accordance with rules adopted by the agency having charge or control of that data. [Such] The 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 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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