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To meet new state guidelines, the Kosciusko County Council approved a new ordinance Thursday that will virtually eliminate a charge for copies of public records.
"This is something we've been kicking around for several weeks, months," said county auditor Sue Ann Mitchell.
The ordinance will set a per-page charge for copying plain paper documents at 5 cents per page, which reflects the average actual cost of copies. The per- page charge for faxing plain paper documents also will be 5 cents per page. However, no charge shall be made if the cost as calculated is less than $1.
The fee will be uniform for all county offices.
Data requested may not be used for commercial purposes or to give away the information to any other person for commercial purposes.
Councilman Tom Anglin asked, "Who is going to police it?"
Mitchell responded, "You'd be surprised how fast that comes back home. ... It's trackable. It's easily trackable."
The new ordinance does not affect any copying or faxing set by statute, only public record information. Each county department determined it is not cost effective to charge 5 cents because that 5 cents would then have to be tracked and reported, too.
"I don't see any problem with this, Mr. Chairman," said councilman John Kinsey. He moved to approve the ordinance and councilman Harold Jones seconded the motion, which was approved unanimously.
In other business, council president Brad Tandy signed a form to set the County Option Income Tax at 0.7 percent and the Economic Development Income Tax at 0.3 percent to be sent to the Indiana Department of Revenue. Mitchell had sent the form previously, but another form was sent by the IRS for the council to sign.
Members of the Kosciusko County Council include president Brad Tandy, vice president Jim Tranter, Tom Anglin, Lewis Bertsch, Harold Jones, John Kinsey and Kathryn Teel.
