State of VermontOffice of the Secretary of State
State of VermontJune 28, 1996 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MONTPELIER -- Public hearings will be scheduled for August on a proposed rule that would set the price that state offices charge the public for photocopies at 4 cents per page.Copies printed on both sides of a sheet of paper would cost 6 cents, according to Secretary of State Jim Milne, and records produced on 3.5-inch computer diskettes would cost 88 cents.
New legislation passed last spring and taking effect Monday requires Milne's office to set the fees for state government offices based on estimates of "actual cost."
"Until we go through rulemaking, our proposed rates are not binding on anyone," Milne said. "It's only after we've advertised our proposal and held a public hearing that they would go into effect.
"In the meantime, the law still requires state and local officials to charge ‘actual cost,' and they may use our proposed numbers if they wish," he said.
Town and city offices must abide by the state fee schedule, after adoption, only if their select boards or city councils decline to set their own fee schedules.
"There's local control built into the law for any municipality that wants to exercise it," Milne said. "Their fees must be based on what the law defines as actual costs, but the cost per copy obviously will be higher in a little town with a big copier."
Milne said his office consulted with the Agency of Administration and accepted the cost data the agency provided. "The photocopy numbers were calculated from roughly 260 copiers leased by the state," he said, "and we have a high degree of confidence in the data we obtained."
Milne noted that a recent survey by the Vermont League of Cities and Towns came up with an actual cost estimate of 5 cents a copy for municipalities, and that a for-profit copy center in Burlington currently charges 7 cents for the first 100 copies and 3.5 cents for subsequent copies.
"We're all in the same ballpark," Milne said.
The impact of the new fee schedule on the average citizen will be slight, he said, but state and local offices that have been depending on copying profits may now face a pinch.
"What the average person is most likely to notice is that there will be less disparity in copy charges from office to office," Milne said.
Milne noted that the new fee schedule will not change certain charges set by statute. "It still will cost $2 a page for a copy of a Uniform Commercial Code lien," he said, "and your local town clerk still will charge $1 a page for deeds." State libraries also have authority to set their own fees.
"In our case, our office actually will be increasing the price we charge from the 2-cent fee instituted by our predecessors," he said.
At the local level, he said, the new law will be reflected most noticeably in the fees charged for copies of such things as the checklist, the grand list and meeting minutes.
The law also authorizes agencies to charge for the labor involved in complying with a copying request, but the first 30 minutes are free.
Milne said his office plans to publish details of the proposed fee schedule next week, along with a recommended formula for local officials who wish to come up with their own actual cost estimates.
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