RIVERTON -- If something belongs to you, should you have to pay to access it?

On the other hand, if a government employee has to take significant time away from other work tasks to fulfill your request for a public record, isn't that an additional cost for that government body?

The tension between those two questions is at the heart of the debate over Wyoming's public records laws, which the Wyoming State Legislature's Joint Corporations, Election, and Political Subdivisions Committee is slated to discuss on November 3.

Currently, government officials can charge any fee they deem "reasonable" for access to public records, which, as this newspaper has shown in some cases, has led to practices such as passing on attorney fees and assessing people fees in the thousands to view documents th

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