A case might be made that population growth, combined with continued press coverage of open records issues, may have fueled an increase in citizen requests for information. However, it is not possible to quantify this effect because governmental entities in Texas have not made a systematic effort to collect reliable statistics on the number of citizen inquiries they receive. The 73rd Legislature attempted to remedy this situation in 1993 with passage of H.B. 1009. On each survey, the GSC asked agencies and universities to estimate the number of public records requests they received during the previous fiscal year. 42 Responses indicate that most agencies have not collected reliable data across time regarding open records requests.
Agencies report improbable jumps or declines in requests from one survey to the next.
For example, the Department of Banking reported just 43 requests in FY92 but 6,000 requests in FY94. The Public Utility Commission reported 39,902 requests in FY92 but less than 1,000 requests four years later. The Parks and Wildlife Department reported 480 requests in FY92 but more than 100,000 requests in FY97. These fluctuations suggest that agencies have not developed methods to systematically collect open records request data.