SC Transportation Dept. Cutting Fees for Public Info Requests

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Department of Transportation is cutting fees it charges for public information requests.

The State newspaper reports Monday the change means the agency won’t charge for staff time for requests that take less than two hours to complete. That includes time researching, retrieving and copying information or documents.

Beyond two hours, staff time will be charged at $20 per hour flat rate for each person working on the request.

Copies of the first 25 pages from a requested document are free. Beyond that, copies cost 10 cent per page.

The agency says that, if the policy were in place, more than 75 percent of Freedom of Information Act requests filed at the Transportation Department over the past year would have been free.