Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 2550 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a maximum fee for reproducing a government record.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Information Practices, Common Cause Hawaii, the League of Women Voters, and a concerned citizen. The Department of Accounting and General Services submitted testimony in opposition to this measure.

Your Committee finds that under Hawaii's laws allowing free access to public and government documents, many citizens request various documents from state agencies. Agencies are required by law to provide photocopies of these documents to accommodate citizen requests.

Your Committee further finds that there is no cap on the fee an agency may charge for photocopying documents and that as a result, there is inconsistency and in some cases, overcharging. Therefore, your Committee supports this measure, which will cap photocopying fees at 25 cents a page.

Your Committee amended this measure to clarify that the fee cap applies to standard letter size and legal size documents. For unusually shaped or larger documents, an agency may charge the actual cost of reproducing that document.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2550, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2550, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.