Miss. bill would curb inflated fees for public records

Promising news in Mississippi! A bill that would allow government agencies to only charge based on the lowest-paid, competent staff person's salary for reproduction costs has made its way to the Senate, the Associated Press reported.

A bill that cleared the Mississippi House on Tuesday says government agencies could only charge their actual costs for providing public records.

An agency would not be allowed to inflate the cost by including amounts paid to attorneys or others who don't work directly for the agency.

An agency would be allowed to charge for the time it takes a staff member to gather or reproduce the records. But the charge would be limited to the salary of the lowest-paid staff person competent to handle the request for documents.

More here.