It seems like such a small thing. But if Pennsylvania's revised Right-to-Know Law is to represent public access to public records, there need to be rulings such as the one made last week.
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On November 4, 2010, the Commonwealth Court in its decision, State Employees' Retirement System v. Office of Open Records, No. 152 C.D. 2010, by Senior Judge Flaherty, denied a claim by SERS for labor charges in complying with a Right-to-Know request as a cost "necessarily incurred" under 65 P.S. § 67.1307(g). Read More…

Even as the state Legislature ponders serious rollbacks to the state's 2-year-old Right to Know Law, the state Commonwealth Court has rendered a wise decision that should dissuade those who want to restrict public access to public information. Read More…

HARRISBURG — Government agencies cannot charge people seeking public records for the time agency employees spend complying with requests made under Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law in certain cases, a state Commonwealth Court panel ruled Thursday. Read More…

HARRISBURG -- Jennifer Hara, a mother of four who drives a school bus, worries about bills pending before the General Assembly that would make it harder to access government records at a time when many Pennsylvanians are challenging gas drilling. "Any degradation of the Right to Know laws would hurt efforts to get more information on Marcellus shale," said Hara of Enola, during a recent gathering about property owners' rights on the huge natural gas formation in Pennsylvania.

A Senate-passed bill would allow governments to charge people for reviewing records, even if they do not request copies. The Senate bill allows local governments to charge up to half of the 25-cents per page copying fee for records people request but do not copy.
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