In an ideal world, public servants paid to serve the public would give the public free and open access to the public records that belong to the public.

Here in the real world — and by real world, we mean Kansas — existing law gives government officials broad discretion to set and charge fees for access to open records. That creates an environment where government workers can use fees as an effective deterrent to granting access to records.

Open records aren’t open if members of the public can’t afford access to them.

Open government advocates have tried to address the issue during the past three legislative sessions. Last year, a bill was approved in the Senate but the House never acted.

Advocates are back this year with Senate Bill 86, which would tighten Kansas Open Records Act language to establish clear and reasonable limits on charges for public records, while eliminating the laundry list of exceptions that allow for arbitrary charges.

Specifically, Senate Bill 86 would:

— Establish 25 cents per page as the maximum charge for standard 8.5-by-11-inch copies of public records.

— Limit all other costs to no more than the actual cost to the public agency to provide the records.

— And require agencies that charge staff time to do so at the lowest hourly rate of the staff member qualified to provide the records.

Contrast that with current law, which allows for charges for copies, computer services, facilities usage and staff time, including staff time for the supervisor overseeing the staff member actually producing the open records.

The law makes exceptions for the legislative, judicial and executive branches of state government and gives agency heads the leeway to set whatever fees they feel appropriate for their individual agencies. The only recourse for records requestors who think the fees are unreasonable is to appeal the charges to the secretary of administration.

That simply shouldn’t be. Fees for public records should be standard, affordable and subject to limits that give the benefit of the doubt to record seekers instead of the record keepers.

Senate Bill 86 does just that and should be approved.