HB 3031: An act allowing government agencies to charge fees for large requests

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2009-10/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/3031.pdf

From the House Republican press release:

"Under HB 3031, a public agency would be allowed to charge a fee, in advance, if complying with a request for documents would take more than five hours of employee time to produce within a month. The measure would give agencies discretion in deciding when a fee would be appropriate."

What a horrible bill. Government already consumes about 40% of the economy of the United States; do people who collectively pay 40% of everything they work for really need to pay an additional fee to get public records that already belong to them?