The 76th Legislature significantly changed many aspects, both substantive and procedural, of the Public Information Act. The new procedures are faster, and should be more fair to requestors, but also create new fees and new burdens for requestors that may lead to delays or barriers to access.

1. It is more important than ever that you pick up your copies. A governmental body no longer has to provide copies of the exact same information more than once, even if you never actually picked up the copies. And if there is a charge for those copies, you may owe the money whether or not you collect the copies.

2. You may now be charged to inspect records if the request is voluminous or time consuming to put together. If the governmental body is small (fewer than 16 full time employees), you may be charged to inspect records if the records are older than three years and will take more than two hours to make available. For larger agencies the information requested must be older than five years or fill six or more archival boxes, and take more than five hours to compile.

3. If a request will cost you more than $40 you will receive a detailed, itemized estimate which you must respond to (either by fax, email, letter or in person) or your request will be deemed withdrawn. You may negotiate changes in the request, decide to view the information without making copies, or accept the charges.

4. Final charges may not exceed the itemized estimate by more than 20% or the governmental body must send you another statement of actual final charges. At this point you may again negotiate changes in the request, decide to view the information without making copies, or accept the charges.

5. The attorney general must release its open records opinions within 55 working days from the time you originally filed your request. This is several weeks faster than before.

6. The streamlined attorney general process includes additional notices and information to the requestor. The governmental body must forward to you a copy of its request for an attorney general opinion. Third parties who file briefs with the attorney general to protect information must now send a copy directly to you by about the 21st working day from the time you originally made your request. These notices will help you make arguments for disclosure and get them to the attorney general in a reasonable time. You will still need to ask for a copy of the governmental body's legal arguments (brief) from the attorney general. This document must be filed by the 15th business day from the time you made your request.

7. If the attorney general says something is open, it's open. The governmental body must either give it to you or be prepared to go to court to protect it within 30 calendar days. Governmental bodies may not send the request back to the attorney general for a "reconsideration."

8. The "categories of public information" (552.022) are now clearly public. Governmental bodies may no longer claim any of the Act's exceptions for information that falls into one of these categories. As you design your request, review these categories to see if the information you seek falls into one of them, and make a note of this in your request.

9. The exceptions for audit working papers (552.116), litigation (552.103), and commercial and financial information (552.110) have been significantly narrowed. If a governmental body claims these exceptions, review the new language carefully.

10. The Act now has significant new exceptions. Information about tax or other financial incentives being proposed to businesses that may relocate to (or leave) Texas is protected until the deal is done. Public utilities may protect a broad range of "competitive" information. Crime victims who apply to the crime victim's compensation fund at the attorney general's office may elect to keep identifying information confidential.

Common Cause Texas has already incorporated into the statute the changes to the Act adopted in SB 1851 and SB 7 (electric deregulation). The revised statute can be found in three consecutive parts at http://www.ccsi.com/~comcause/news/pubin.html. This document will ultimately reflect all the changes made by the 76th Legislature.