Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial

2/2/07

      They say you can’t fight City Hall. Maybe that’s because it’s too expensive. Colorado law allows local governments to charge up to $1.25 per page — yes, per page — for copies of public records. Kinko’s it ain’t. But pricing the press and people out of the flow of public information is a sneaky way of saying, “Butt out!”

      So, kudos to state Sen. Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, the Senate’s minority leader, for introducing a measure to cap the per-page cost at 25 cents. That’s still pretty generous to government, and McElhany’s Senate Bill 45 also allows government agencies to continue to assess an hourly retrieval charge for extensive records requests.
      Earlier this week, the Senate Finance Committee approved the bill, with all members of both parties supporting it except one. The lone objector, newly elected Democrat John Morse of Colorado Springs (who was Fountain’s police chief for a time), complained at length during the hearing about citizens who burdened the city with records requests. “Why should the taxpayers subsidize people’s requests for information?” Morse asked at one point.
      Subsidize? Who pays the salaries of the people doing the photo-copying? Who paid for the photo copier? Who paid for the paper? Capping per-page charges isn’t a subsidy, since the charges themselves are a punitive form of double taxation, designed to limit the availability of public information. Morse has strange attitudes for a self-styled public servant.
      Perhaps Morse will eventually see the light on this issue. In the meantime, we wish McElhany’s bill speedy enactment.