Signed by Governor Jay Inslee

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that establishes fees for printed and digital copies of public records.

Highlights:

• Authorizes an agency that provides public records to charge a fee for not only photocopies of requested public records, but also electronically produced copies (Sec. 1)

• Requires an agency to provide a statement of the actual costs that it charges for providing public records, whether they’re digital or hard copies, and a statement of the factors and manner used to determine those costs, including but not limited to (Sec. 1):

• The actual cost of the paper and the per page cost for use of the agency copying equipment; and

• The actual cost of the electronic production or file transfer of the record and the use of any cloud-based data storage and processing service.

• Prohibits agencies from including staff salaries, benefits, or other general administrative or overhead charges in determining the actual costs for providing copies of public records, unless these costs are directly related to the actual cost of copying the public records (Sec. 1).

• Specifies that agencies do not have to determine the costs if they have rules or regulations declaring that doing so would be unduly burdensome but prohibits those agencies from charging in excess of (Sec. 3):

• 15 cents per page for photocopies of public records, printed copies of electronic public records, or for the use of agency equipment to photocopy public records;

• 10 cents per page for public records scanned into an electronic format or for the use of agency equipment to scan the records; and

• 5 cents per each four electronic files or attachments uploaded to email, cloud-based data storage service, or other means of electronic delivery.

• Authorizes an agency to deny public-records requests if they reasonably believe it was automatically generated by a computer program or script (Sec. 2).

Full Bill Text