Montana Senate passes public record request bill
Senate Bill 232 seeks to enact timely response to public records requests.
By Amanda Eggert, MTFP (Montana Free Press), March 3, 2023
Most state agencies presented with public records requests will have clear deadlines for compliance if Senate Bill 232 clears the Legislature and the governor’s desk.
The likelihood of both of those things happening is looking good: SB 232 sponsor Sen. Janet Ellis, D-Helena, worked with Gov. Greg Gianforte to develop a record request framework that both parties could live with, and an amended version of the bill unanimously passed the Senate March 2.
But the original version of the bill also came with a sizable fiscal note. The state’s budget director estimated it would cost more than $4 million annually to comply with SB 232’s directives, mostly to obtain staffing and IT-related equipment to find and review records and manage the requests.
By working with the Gianforte administration to change those timelines, Ellis was able to bring the fiscal note down to $0, but that adjustment came with its own cost in timeliness. Per the amended version of the bill, an agency has five days from acknowledging receipt of a request to produce a single, clearly identifiable document, 90 days to comply with more complicated requests, and up to six months to fulfill yet larger and more involved requests.
