Increasing fees for public records is not the answer for government transparency
The fastest way to shut down access to government records is to charge fees people can’t afford to pay. Another way is to simply ignore or delay responding to citizens or media who make requests under the Tennessee Public Records Act. Yet another, which takes more effort, is to actively confuse or frustrate a citizen or journalist with byzantine policies and practices to make them go away. All can be powerfully effective. And, unfortunately, all take place in Tennessee. The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government received nearly 200 calls to its hotline last year from journalists and citizens who faced obstacles in getting public documents from their local government or [...]