DOUGLAS F.

GANSLER
ATTORNEY GENERAL

DAN FRIEDMAN

COUNSEL TO T H E GENERAL A5

KATHERINE WINFREE
CHIEF DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL

SANDRA BENSON BRAN JEREMY M . MCCOI KATHRYN M . ROW) T H E ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MARYLAND

JOHN B. HOWARD, JR.

DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL

ASSISTANT ATTORNEYS GEN

OFFICE O F C O U N S E L T O T H E GENERAL ASSEMBLY

April 11, 2014 H. LeRoy Whiteley, Jr. Marylanders for Fair Property Taxation 516 Walters Mill Road Forest Hill, Maryland 21050-1428 Dear Mr. Whiteley: This is a response to your request for information from the Department of Legislative Services ("DLS"). In each of your letters, dated March 23, you asked more than twenty questions about the Fiscal and Policy Notes for S B 553/HB 1041 and S B 634. A s counsel to Maryland General Assembly, including D L S , I am responding on their behalf. I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. A s you may know, the annual legislative session of the General Assembly recently ended on Monday, April 7. The final days of the session are extremely busy, thus we were unable to respond until now. Maryland has a Public Information Act ("PIA"), which is similar to, but not exactly like the federal Freedom of Information Act. Under the PIA, "[ejxcept as othenA/ise provided by law, a custodian shall permit a person or governmental unit to inspect any public record at any reasonable time." State Govt. Article ("SG"), 10-612(a). A "public record" is defined as "the original or any copy of any documentary material that: (i) is made by or received by an agency "in connection with the transaction of public business; and (ii) is in any form..." S G 10611(h)(1). Moreover, State Government Article 10-615 states that a custodian shall deny inspection of a public record if that record is privileged or confidential by law. Under Maryland's Constitution, Article III, 18, members of the General Assembly and legislative staff are entitled to an absolute constitutional privilege for their legislative acts. In your letters, you did not ask for any public records. Rather, you asked a sehes of questions seeking answers and information relating to the methods and basis for the analysis contained in the Fiscal and Policy Notes. Accordingly, you have not made an appropriate PIA request for public records. Moreover, nearly all of the information you seek relates to the operations of the State Department of Assessments and Taxation. Finally, information used by legislative staff to draft the Fiscal and Policy Note is protected by law under the Maryland Constitutional legislative privilege. Accordingly, we are not providing any explanations and answers to your questions. State Government Article 10-623 authorizes judicial review of a denial of access to a public record.

Sincerely,

Sandra Benson Brantley^^,^^^ Assistant Attorney General

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