THE PRICE OF TRANSPARENCY: When Public Records Become Too Expensive for the Public

JAW GA News | Statewide Special Investigation | October 12, 2026

Folks, I want to ask you a serious question. If government records are supposed to belong to the public, why can it cost somebody hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars just to find out what their own government is doing?

That’s the question behind our newest statewide investigation: The Price of Transparency: When Public Records Become Too Expensive for the Public.

Here at JAW GA News, we believe in accountability. That includes holding government agencies accountable, but it also means being fair about what the law actually says. We’re not about to accuse every city, county, sheriff’s office, or state agency of breaking the law simply because they sent somebody a bill. What we’re going to do is examine the estimates, the calculations, the records being requested, and the explanations the public receives. Then we’re going to follow the facts.

What Georgia Law Allows

Under Georgia’s Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71, agencies may charge reasonable costs for searching, retrieving, redacting, and producing responsive public records. That authority is not unlimited. The law requires agencies to use the most economical means reasonably calculated to locate and produce responsive, nonexempt records.

Generally, qualifying labor charges cannot exceed the prorated hourly salary of the lowest-paid full-time employee reasonably qualified to perform the work, and the first 15 minutes of that work are free. The ordinary copying cap for letter- or legal-size pages is 10 cents per page, unless a different specific fee is authorized by law. For electronic records, agencies may charge the actual cost of the media used to produce them, as well as allowable labor.

If an agency expects to charge more than $25, it must provide a cost estimate within the time required by the statute, generally no later than three business days. For estimates above $500, the agency may insist on prepayment before beginning the work. In general, agencies must make responsive records available within three business days where possible, or explain the delay and expected timetable.

Those provisions matter. So does this: A fee can be lawful and still raise a serious policy question about whether ordinary people can realistically afford access to their own public records.

What We Are Investigating

We want to know whether estimates are calculated accurately. Are agencies selecting the appropriate qualified employee rate? Are the projected hours reasonable? Are electronic records being handled in the most economical practical way? Are fees explained clearly enough for a requester to understand them? And are people abandoning legitimate requests because the price is more than they can afford?

We also want to hear from agencies. Some requests involve thousands of pages, complicated searches, or protected personal information that must be removed before release. Those circumstances can create real work. We will report those explanations alongside the evidence, not pretend they don’t exist.

We Are Calling on Georgians to Share Their Experiences

Have you submitted an Open Records Act request to a Georgia city, county, sheriff’s office, police department, school district, or state agency and received a fee estimate that surprised you? Did the agency explain how it calculated the charge? Did you receive the records? Did you reduce or abandon your request because you couldn’t afford the estimate?

We want to hear from you. Please send us the government agency’s name, the date of your request, a copy of your request, the written fee estimate or invoice, and any relevant follow-up correspondence. If you paid the fee, tell us the amount paid and what you received. If the agency reduced or waived the fee, we want to document that too.

Use our JAW GA News contact page or email jawganews@gmail.com, with THE PRICE OF TRANSPARENCY in the subject line. Please remove Social Security numbers, home addresses, medical information, minors’ personal details, and other sensitive private information before submitting anything. Do not send information you are not authorized to share. We may contact you to verify documents and discuss whether you can be identified; submitting a tip does not guarantee anonymity or publication.

We Will Also Seek Answers From State Leaders

JAW GA News will seek input from Georgia lawmakers and open-government advocates on potential reforms, including clearer itemized fee estimates, better access to existing electronic records, more proactive online publication of routinely requested documents, and reasonable protections for documented public-interest requests.

We will also examine specific disputes against the law as written. Georgia’s Attorney General operates an Open Government Complaint and Mediation Program for qualifying complaints, and the Georgia First Amendment Foundation provides guidance on public access to government records.

Our Standard: Evidence Before Accusation

Let’s be clear about something. A high estimate does not prove misconduct, and a public employee doing legitimate redaction work is not automatically doing something wrong. We will look at the request, the legal requirements, the actual estimate, and the agency’s response before reaching conclusions. Where allegations involve a particular agency, we will seek a meaningful opportunity for that agency to respond.

But we are not going to ignore the bigger question, either. Who benefits from a public records law if the people most in need of oversight cannot afford to use it?

Our government should be accountable to the people, and access to public records is part of how that accountability works. The goal here is not popularity or a predetermined verdict. It is evidence, answers, and improvements that serve the public.

JAW GA News is officially opening this investigation. If you have records that show what public transparency has cost you, bring us the documentation. We will follow the facts wherever they lead.

Rev. Joseph Allen Wolfe
Founder, Owner, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Independent Investigative Journalist | JAW GA News

Primary sources: O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71 (2025 codification); Georgia First Amendment Foundation, Sunshine Laws guide; Georgia Attorney General, Open Government FAQs.