Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2550, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish that fees charged to reproduce government records open to the inspection of the public may not be more than 25 cents per standard letter or legal size page.

Your Committee finds that copying fees in state agencies currently range from 5 cents to $1 per page. There is no uniformity. Citizens interested in obtaining copies of public documents may not be able to afford the fees currently charged by some agencies. Public records should be available to the public at affordable prices, and this measure will help keep access to public records affordable.

Your Committee has amended this bill to provide an exception for fees charged by the Director of Finance and Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs pursuant to section 92-24, Hawaii Revised Statutes, in addition to the exception already provided for copies of agency rules. Agencies seeking to charge different fees for other government records must establish those fees through rulemaking. Your Committee will consider different fees for colored copies as the measure moves through the Legislature.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2550, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2550, S.D. 2.