The cost of transparency may be on the rise

That is if Jeff Wentworth has his way. He introduced Senate Bill 889 which will raise the costs of any Texas Public Information Access (TXPIA) request that exceeds 50 pages. In fact it goes one better, it imposes higher fees on anyone who cumulatively requests over 50 pages in a given month. The witness list was heavily tilted towards School districts, and other governmental entities. Only one person testified against it, a representative from the Texas Newspaper Association. This bill has been voted out of committee with a total of 6 Ayes, 0 Nays and 3 members not present. Unfortunately it is unclear which committee members voted and which ones were not present. The Woodland's Tommy Williams is on that committee as is John Carona from Dallas, Rodney Ellis from Houston, Leticia Van De Putte from San Antonio, Robert Duncan from Lubbock, Troy Fraser from Austin, Chris Harris from Arlington, Mike Jackson from Pasadena, and Eddie Lucio Jr. from Brownsville. Make sure and contact these people as well as your own senator and make sure they know in no uncertain terms that a vote for this bill is a vote against governmental accountability. And if this makes it out of the senate, make sure and contact your state representative too.

UPDATE:
I spoke with the clerk for that committee and determined that the senators that were not present when this was voted upon were Williams, Carona, and Harris.