New bill could add fee for Tennesseans to request public records

A bill in the Tennessee General Assembly sponsored by Representative Rebecca Alexander of Jonesborough could make it much more difficult for Tennesseans to request public records. The Tennessee Public Records Act allows any state resident to inspect public records at no charge. At present, public entities can only charge for tasks like the labor to retrieve and redact those records, or for legal opinions about whether a record may be exempt from release, or if the requesting person wants paper or digital copies. If the new bill is approved, it would allow for charges to be applied, for a citizen who simply wants to view the records. Alexander said she doesn’t think adding a cost to inspect records would affect the public but many disagree, including officials with The Tennessee Coalition of Open Government, which believes the law would take away government transparency and be unaffordable for many citizens to simply look at work and statistics that the government has already completed. Officials say that “Taxpayers have already paid for government officials to keep records to organize their records in a way that make them easy to produce.” The bill is currently in the Public Service Subcommittee. It will have to pass several more votes to become law.