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Editorial: Public needs fair access to records
People who want to know whether government rules for drivers keep the public safe can go jump into the Missouri River, based on the Missouri Department of Transportation’s stunning price hike for records.
The department starting May 1 charges $7 per individual driving record, more than five times higher than the former $1.25. The cost to look at one’s own record is high.
But the department wants more. For any watchdog group wanting to review all driving records, the amount required surpasses astronomical.
Getting complete state driving records before May 1 cost around $2,000. The rate increase sends the cost skyrocketing for research groups, including newspapers, to around $30 million. The amount approaches 15,000 times higher than the previous cost.
In other words, fact-based, independent reviews of the effectiveness of Missouri driving laws, work done far too seldom in any case, will stop entirely.
No newspaper in the nation could take that kind of financial hit no matter how important the information. In fact, few Missouri newspapers have spare cash to put up even $2,900 let alone $29 million for such research, except on an occasional basis.
This means the public will not hear independent reviews. Instead they will hear only government reports, which in political hands could turn easily into propaganda.
Without independent reviews, only the government could answer these questions:
• How many school bus drivers have drunken driving convictions?
• Does the state hand driver’s licenses to fugitives?
• How many drunken drivers do state laws take off the road?
• Are teen drivers or those over 80 more likely to die on state roads?
The department’s new policy prices the answers out of the public’s reach and may cross the line from being merely absurd to illegal.
Missouri’s Sunshine Law requires governments at all levels to charge no more than the actual cost for records. This means that if 1,000 records fit on a disk and copying that disk takes one minute, by law the charge must not exceed the cost for one minute of work and the price for the disk.
No Department of Revenue employee can say with a straight face that copying driving records costs an estimated $29.4 million. The price is laughable, not in the public interest and should never have gone into effect.
Government, after all, exists to serve, not profit from, the public.
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The department starting May 1 charges $7 per individual driving record, more than five times higher than the former $1.25. The cost to look at one’s own record is high.
But the department wants more. For any watchdog group wanting to review all driving records, the amount required surpasses astronomical.
Getting complete state driving records before May 1 cost around $2,000. The rate increase sends the cost skyrocketing for research groups, including newspapers, to around $30 million. The amount approaches 15,000 times higher than the previous cost.
In other words, fact-based, independent reviews of the effectiveness of Missouri driving laws, work done far too seldom in any case, will stop entirely.
No newspaper in the nation could take that kind of financial hit no matter how important the information. In fact, few Missouri newspapers have spare cash to put up even $2,900 let alone $29 million for such research, except on an occasional basis.
This means the public will not hear independent reviews. Instead they will hear only government reports, which in political hands could turn easily into propaganda.
Without independent reviews, only the government could answer these questions:
• How many school bus drivers have drunken driving convictions?
• Does the state hand driver’s licenses to fugitives?
• How many drunken drivers do state laws take off the road?
• Are teen drivers or those over 80 more likely to die on state roads?
The department’s new policy prices the answers out of the public’s reach and may cross the line from being merely absurd to illegal.
Missouri’s Sunshine Law requires governments at all levels to charge no more than the actual cost for records. This means that if 1,000 records fit on a disk and copying that disk takes one minute, by law the charge must not exceed the cost for one minute of work and the price for the disk.
No Department of Revenue employee can say with a straight face that copying driving records costs an estimated $29.4 million. The price is laughable, not in the public interest and should never have gone into effect.
Government, after all, exists to serve, not profit from, the public.