Unlike a draft circulating at the state Capitol since mid-March, the introduced version of a bill amending the Colorado Open Records Act would not affect public records fees, which are set to rise with inflation in 2024.

Senate Bill 23-286, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Chris Hansen of Denver, does not contain previously floated language giving news organizations a break on costs nor does it give state agencies and local governments more time to respond to CORA requests made by members of the public and commercial entities.

The measure, posted late Monday on the General Assembly’s website, still addresses some other issues in the circulated draft, including requiring records custodians to accept credit cards or electronic payments for records provided under CORA (if they already take them for other products or services) and prohibiting the charging of per-page fees for records provided in digital formats such as PDFs.