Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 802 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to repeal the five cents per page minimum copying cost, and establish a twenty-five cents per page maximum.

Your Committee received testimony supporting this measure from the Office of Information Practices, the ACLU, the League of Women Voters, Hawaii's Thousand Friends, and Life of the Land. The Department of Accounting and General Services opposed the bill, and two concerned citizens supported the intent but opposed the bill substantively.

Your Committee finds that public access to government records fosters public confidence in government. The public's ability to obtain copies of government records is no less important. Your Committee further finds that government agencies and offices that arbitrarily set copying fees that do not correlate to actual copying costs detract from the public's confidence in government.

Your Committee recognizes that certain agencies and offices routinely deal with documents that require specialized reproduction. These agencies and offices would not be able to accommodate public requests for copies if they were limited to a twenty-five cent per copy copying fee. Therefore, your Committee amended the bill to exempt government agencies, departments, and offices that routinely work with documents that exceed 8-1/2 x 14 inches from the twenty-five cent maximum per page fee. These agencies, departments, and offices are required to adopt rules that set forth a copying fee schedule.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 802, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 802, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.