… This is unacceptable on so many levels. In fact, it has been overturned by several supreme courts in various states. A nominal fee that represents actual costs associated with printing a physical copy something like $0.05 cents per page would be understandable. The commission, to our understanding, will even charge for emailed copies of public records. The big issue with this is say you want something as common as the county budget. This record should be able to be viewed by any citizen that walks into the courthouse at the very least, instead, its now a $1000 dollar fee to see where our tax dollars are going.
To fix this is unfortunately out of reach for most people since you have to incur enough of a bill to call burdensome and then hire an attorney to file suit and carry it all the way to the supreme court. This is what we have come to in this country. Its pay to play even for the county budget now.