From 7NEWS (Denver):  A bill headed to Governor John Hickenlooper’s desk will limit the fees for Colorado citizens seeking public records. House Bill 1193 limits the amount of money agencies can charge for research time to $30 per hour — and the first hour is free.

A year-long series of reports concerning government transparency in Colorado by the CALL7 Investigators found many agencies charging exorbitant fees — which can deter citizens, including journalists, from obtaining the records.

“Currently there is no standardization, and we have multiple public entities charging, in many cases, outrageous amounts of money for people to able to access public records,” said State Representative Joe Salazar, a Democrat from Thornton, who authored the bill.

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