Vestal:The cost of providing public records

Cities, counties and state agencies spent at least $60 million – and probably much more – on fulfilling requests for government records last year, a new state audit finds. Brace yourself for the wave of complaints from government officials telling you that’s too much – complaints that are likely to find their way into legislative proposals to restrict public access to government information.

This would be a lousy and undemocratic direction, but there is nothing surprising in it: among the most predictable results of public accountability for governments are rote complaints about the hardships of providing public accountability. It’s just such a burden. The truth is, however, that the new report from the state auditor could reasonably be seen as describing not a problem but a boon: More people are requesting records, more kinds of records and technologies are being provided, and governments have to spend more time and effort providing them. More here.