INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A bill that would have allowed government agencies to charge an hourly fee for public records requests that take more than two hours to complete has been vetoed by Gov. Eric Holcomb.
Holcomb wrote in a veto message Monday that he doesn’t support creating “burdensome obstacles” to obtaining public documents.
State law currently prohibits public agencies from charging a fee to search for, examine or review a record. The measure would have allowed agencies to charge the lesser of $20 per hour or the hourly wage of the employee completing the search after the first two hours.
Former Gov. Mike Pence vetoed a similar measure in 2015.
The General Assembly can override the veto with simple majorities in both chambers.
1 comment
Good call. The cost was dependent on the ability of the worker doing the search not to mention the speed of the equipment. We all don’t work at the same speed and what if the computer bogged down. Too much grey area. The cost would probably vary.