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Do you agree with the State's general policy to recover costs for information provided for open records requests?
Judicial information is valuable. It provides the raw material for the legal system as well the foundation for a democratic government based on individual's rights. Public and private sector publishers have established an enviable income through selling public information and the Courts must resist the temptation to "turn a profit" by "taxing" users for access to public information. If that were the purpose, then perhaps the public would be better served if tax dollars are not spent to fund development of a system to generate additional "tax-like" revenues.
Assuming that no "turn a profit" motive exists, the Courts should closely examine whether the costs to charge and collect fees for access would be disproportionately large in comparison to the costs to make the data available. Utilizing the Internet, it costs no more to provide data to one person than to make it available to 1000. On the other hand, if a charging and collecting mechanism is built-in, the overhead costs due to charging and collecting accrue for each of the 1000 accesses.
Additionally, because answers to open records requests are generally available to the public via the Internet, the cost savings associated with the reduction in clerical time spent fielding calls should more than offsets any mandated cost recovery.