(TRENTON) — Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Cryan on Friday hailed an Appellate Court ruling that found government agencies can only charge the public the actual costs for copies of government records.
Cryan (D-Union) is sponsoring legislation (A-559) to set lower and more uniform fees for copies of official state government documents. Under his bill, the cost that could be charged to an individual for public records could not exceed 10 cents per page for letter-size copies or 15 cents per page for legal-size copies.
“This ruling is a victory for the public and government transparency,” Cryan said of the ruling. “If private businesses had the same copying fees as some government agencies, we’d have consumer-protection laws in place already.”
The ruling, which takes effect July 1, can be found here.
“Government has no reason to overcharge for public information and should always lean toward transparency and this ruling will help hammer that point home,” Cryan said.
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