New bill could add fee for Tennesseans to request public records

New bill could add fee for Tennesseans to request public records

A bill in the Tennessee General Assembly sponsored by Representative Rebecca Alexander of Jonesborough could make it much more difficult for Tennesseans to request public records. The Tennessee Public Records Act allows any state resident to inspect public records at no charge. At present, public entities can only charge for tasks like the labor to retrieve and redact those records, or for legal opinions about whether a record may be exempt from…