Right-to-Know Law Isn't Without Costs

When the attorney for an apartment-building developer sent 52 Right-to-Know requests to a Pennsylvania township, that has not been without costs, the Reading Eagle reports. "Each request has led to minutes, hours or even weeks of digging out records, sending emails or conversing with attorneys - all of it tapping limited resources and money available to the small government entities," the Reading Eagle further reports. (The underlying dispute is over sewerage for the proposed apartments.)

Kim de Bourbon, executive director of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition, told the newspaper the answer to those costs is to have documents uploaded onto government websites as a matter of course.

Legislation to amend the five-year-old legislation is currently pending in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.