The Pickens Sentinel and Easley Progress recently filed a Freedom of Information request to several public entities, requesting a list of employees who earn salaries of more than $50,000 annually.

State law requires that this is public information, and we filed requests with Pickens County and the School District of Pickens County. Our sister publication, the Powdersville Post, sent similar requests to Anderson County and Anderson School District One.

With only one exception, every entity replied promptly and courteously. That one exception was no surprise – the School District of Pickens County.

Julie Thompson, Director of Information for the SDPC, sent us a letter stating that we would be charged 10 cents per sheet of paper, plus an hourly charge to the time required to gather the information.

Certainly, state law allows public entities to be fairly compensated for any effort to fulfill a Freedom of Information request. We agree that this is fair.

However, thankfully technology has allowed less costly ways of sharing information. Our request was for the information asked that it be sent to us by e-mail. So the 10-cents-per sheet-of-paper charge would not be necessary.

And let’s not forget that the school district spends countless dollars on fancy invitations and other materials they want the newspapers to have; yet they want to charge for information we request.

Personnel salary information should not be that difficult for school officials to gather. If it takes great effort for school officials to determine how many people on their payroll earn more than $50,000, perhaps that is a hint that there are deeper problems within our school district than we originally feared.

South Carolina has a strong Freedom of Information law simply because our state officials feel that taxpayers have a right to know how their money is spent. Most public entities have no problem in abiding by that law. Others wrongfully feel that by using smokescreens such as cost of gathering information they can get around state law.

Such tactics only make taxpayers wonder if there is something else the school district is trying to hide.

Yet we will not be deterred by the district charging for this information the public has a right to see and have asked Thompson to move forward with our request made Friday, March 12.

We also commend the other three entities – Pickens County, Anderson County and Anderson School District One – for their transparency. They too are going through budget problems, yet their response to our request was courteous and prompt.

The Editorial Board – Sandy Foster, Ben Robinson, Jason Evans and Nathan DiBagno