It's hard to keep up with the 24/7
Wisconsin Depredation Agenda being pushed by the current Governor (remember
his commitment to "transparency?") and his legislative allies, but this alert from veteran media and policy watchdog Bill Lueders shines the spotlight on a hearing tomorrow on legislation that will curb through new taxes public access to public records in the possession of public officials whom we pay to create, maintain, provide and not disabuse public information.
From: Bill Lueders [blueders@wisconsinwatch.org]
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 3:30 PM
Subject: Hearing set on bill to create new tax on public records
I'm
resending the Action Alert I sent several days ago, with an update:
This bill has been scheduled for a hearing next Wednesday, Feb. 27, in
Room 225 of the state Capitol, 10 a.m. It is one of two bills set for a
hearing that day. Council members and supporters are encouraged to
attend and testify. A copy of the meeting notice is attached.
As
we were expecting, a bill to allow custodians to impose a new fee for
the time they spend reviewing and redacting records has been introduced
in the current legislative session. It is AB 26. The text is here: https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2013/related/proposals/ab26.
The bill has nine listed cosponsors, eight Republicans and one Democrat. It has been referred to the Assembly Committee<https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2013/committees/1098> on Government Operations and State Licensing.
The
Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council considers this bill a serious
threat to the public's ability to obtain public information.
It will
allow custodians to make some records unaffordable to some requesters,
and it will inevitably lead to abuse. The state of Wisconsin got along
just fine for many years without these fees being imposed. Custodians
only began charging them in the wake of a 2002 Wisconsin Supreme Court
decision known as Osborn v. the Board of Regents (http://statecasefiles.justia.com/documents/wisconsin/supreme-court/2000AP002861-(2002-07-02).pdf).
In that case, the Supreme Court included some imprecise language
regarding the charges that custodians could impose. (See Osborn ruling,
P. 3, last line of introduction, and P. 39.) Some custodians seized on
this language to begin charging for the time they spent reviewing and
redacting records.
When these fees were challenged in a case decided by the court last year, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel v. the City of Milwaukee (http://www.wicourts.gov/sc/opinion/DisplayDocument.pdf?content=pdf&seqNo=84155), the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the law did not allow for these costs to be passed on to requesters.
Having
been caught imposing what were determined to be illegal fees,
custodians have now enlisted the support of some state legislators to
change the law to permit these charges.
We urge our members and
supporters to stand in opposition to this troubling new tax on the
public's right to know.
The state's open records law states, in the
second sentence of its Declaration of Policy (19.31, state Stats.), the
following: "Further, providing persons with such information is declared
to be an essential function of a representative government and an
integral part of the routine duties of officers and employees whose
responsibility it is to provide such information."
The law
clearly says that providing records is part of public officials' job.
Why should public officials be allowed to charge extra for doing it?
--
Bill Lueders
Bill Lueders, president
Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council
so much for open government.
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