Legislative Update: Right to know - February 09, 2024 Windham Independent
Legislative Update: Right to know
Last week, the House of Representatives passed HB1002 with a 193-179 vote (63 Republicans/129 Democrats for, 125 Republicans/53 Democrats against, 1/1 independent split). A vote to reconsider will happen this Thursday.
Despite the good intentions of its supporters, the proposed law will gut our right to know law, which is essential to government transparency and accountability.
The bill allows public bodies/agencies to charge up to $25 an hour in labor costs for right-to-know requests that take more than ten hours to complete.
Its stated intent is to curb abuses of the right to know laws by individuals that keep making large requests only to harass government entities. While such anecdotal evidence was presented during the public hearing, those concerns could have been addressed in a much more limited way.
Just as we penalize litigants who file frivolous or unnecessary lawsuits because they are interfering with court and judicial efficiency, we could allow courts to limit the ability of people who abuse the right-to-know laws to file new requests.
Instead of a narrowly targeted approach, HB1002 is so broad that it essentially allows public bodies or agencies to spend over ten hours on almost any request, making the right to know law only available to the wealthy. Right-to-know requests are asking for government information that the taxpayers already paid for - asking us to pay AGAIN to see it is unjustifiable. What about the people who cannot write a large check? Do their rights not matter?
Currently, governments have an incentive to be efficient in producing the documents requested to reduce costs. A law offering them $25 for every additional hour they take to process a request would turn this incentive around by rewarding agencies that are ineffective or intentionally drag their feet, while punishing the agencies that are effective - a terrible incentive to offer anyone, let alone public bodies.
And while the bill states that an unreasonable estimate may be appealed to the ombudsman (an office whose authorization expires in 2025), how exactly could they determine whether an estimate is reasonable? Such proceedings tend to give governments a massive amount of deference, making the odds of an unreasonable estimate being overturned exceedingly low. Look up the Chevron doctrine one day if you want to see how far courts will bend backwards to avoid ruling against government agencies.
Our Constitution states that citizens have a right to know what their government is doing - our constitutional right to know cannot be denied to citizens who cannot afford to pay hundreds or thousands in fees decided by the agencies who we are trying to hold accountable.
I have been sharing my concerns with many representatives who voted yes on this legislation, and quite a few told me that they have changed their mind on HB1002 due to the feedback they received, or that they did not fully appreciate the downsides of the bill last week and are currently reconsidering their decision.
By the time you read this letter, the House will have decided the fate of HB1002 - I will do everything I can to protect our right to know what our government is doing.
I am always happy to engage with Windham residents on my legislative work - you can reach me on legislative matters at 603-267-4142 (call or text), or at dpm@leg.state.nh.us.
Daniel Popovici-Muller
Windham Representative
Clerk, Division II
House Finance Committee