Fees to access government documents

It galls me to no end that if I am in a car accident, I must pay $20 to get a copy of the police report. That's $20 for someone to run a large sheet of paper through a photocopy machine.

Apparently, I had it good compared to some folks:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia Supreme Court is being asked to overturn a ruling that allowed a private company to pay less than $20 for electronic versions of tax maps that would have cost more than $225,000 as paper copies.

Harrison County software company Seneca Technologies secured 28,206 maps from the state Tax Department for $18.56. It is now offering those maps to the public for free on its Web site.

The free postings deprive counties of money needed to maintain the mapping system and to help support local government, attorneys for Kanawha County Assessor Phyllis Gatson and the Courthouse Facilities Improvement Fund argue in court documents filed Jan. 16.

... Under state law, county assessors charge $8 for each copy of a map. Of that amount, $4 goes to the county assessor’s office, $3 goes to the fund for courthouse upkeep and $1 goes to the state Tax Department.

But state law also says public records requested under the Freedom of Information Act must be provided at cost.

(Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Irene) Berger ruled that Seneca, which used FOIA to request the maps, needed to pay only the cost of producing three DVDs.

If Berger’s ruling is allowed to stand, Gatson and others argue it would have disastrous financial ramifications for the courthouse fund and county assessors across the state.

... Patrick Lough, a software engineer for Seneca Technologies, said Thursday that the company maintains that any information created by the government should be available to the public for free.

Mr. Excessive Copying Fee, meet Mr. Technology.

Unless someone can convince me otherwise, I have little sympathy for the courthouse officials. And it goes back to those $20 fees I've had to pay for those accident reports.