There are nearly as many approaches to fees as there are states. Fees for computer time, programming time, printouts, supplies, labor and overhead may be assessed against the requester. Many states do not dictate fee schedules for electronic records access. Texas is one of the few exceptions. The Texas General Service Commission established suggested charges for diskettes and fees for access time on various types of computers.
Some states allow additional fees for computer records.
Some statutes prohibit agencies from charging for the time to search electronically stored documents. Others say agencies may assess a fee for that service. States also split on whether agencies may or must grant fee waivers to reporters or other requesters when disclosure is in the public interest. Because agencies sometimes assess inflated costs for computer time, requesters may want to question high charges. The National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting suggests that a requester who is charged by the minute should multiply the per-minute charge claimed by the agency by the 524,160 minutes in a year and compare the result to the actual yearly expense the agency pays for operating the computer services.