Inslee signs bill to OK fees for electronic public records

OLYMPIA – Gov. Jay Inslee has signed a bill that will allow government agencies to charge fees for electronic copies of records.

While public agencies can already charge a default rate of up to 15 cents per page for photocopying documents in response to public records requests, current state law doesn’t include comparable language for charging fees for documents that are scanned and sent by email, or records that are uploaded to an electronic delivery system. The new law, signed Tuesday, takes effect in July.

The measure allows agencies to charge up to 10 cents per page for scanned documents and up to 5 cents for every four electronic attachments when replying to public records requests. Agencies will also be able to charge up to 10 cents per gigabyte of data or impose a flat fee of $2 for larger requests.