Some public information is public only if you are willing to pay dearly and wait patiently.

The Department of Health and Human Services is doing all it can to discourage – downright block – the Sun Journal from obtaining data on the number of welfare recipients employed at Maine’s 50 largest companies.

We requested that information in the public interest, under the state’s Freedom of Access Act, but DHHS, including Commissioner Jack Nicholas, thinks that if the agency describes the data as too complicated to produce and too expensive to compile, that a properly filed request for public information will disappear right along with the agency’s responsibility to fill it.

DHHS is wrong.

We believe the public has a right to know which companies dump or delay health benefits, forcing workers to obtain Medicaid, called MaineCare in Maine, and other welfare services. It’s an increasingly common corporate subsidy that citizens are paying.

The tale of DHHS’s intentional blocking of our freedom of information request is complicated, but the message the state has delivered is simple: Get lost.

How very King George-like. How very offensive. How very obstructive.

The state is required, by law, to provide information to the public about the public’s business. It’s our chief guarantee that government acts in our best interest.

In May, after receiving – at no charge – data on the number of employees who receive welfare benefits while working at each of the state’s largest 20 employers, we requested data on the next 30 largest companies so we could draw a fair conclusion about this trend.

After making that request, we received a $500 quote to produce one page of data on those 30 companies. The job, done by computer program, was estimated to take five hours and be delivered in one week’s time.

Although ultimately willing to pay that fee to get the data, we questioned DHHS’s quote of $500 since, last year, Maine revised its Freedom of Access Act to limit cost of staff time to fulfill freedom of information requests to zero charge for the first hour and $10 per hour thereafter. By our estimate, under the law, the five-hour job should cost the Sun Journal $40. Mike Norton, director of public and media relations for DHHS, assured us he would double-check the law and reconsider the fee.

He did both.

On May 31, Norton said that although the DHHS legal department believed the Sun Journal’s interpretation of fees under Maine’s FOA was correct, the agency’s programmers refused to run the job because they were accustomed to billing at $100 an hour and were standing firm on their five-hour, $500 estimate.

Let’s get this straight: DHHS employees – who draw salaries paid by taxpayers – refused to fulfill a properly filed freedom of information request because their office wasn’t getting paid enough for the job? That’s ridiculous, and we said so to Norton.

Four days later, DHHS – through its general counsel – “adjusted” its original quote upward to $3,000. The job was re-estimated to take 300 hours and be delivered in eight months’ time.

The cost adjustment was six times the original – supposedly firm – quote.

The time adjustment upward was considerably more outrageous – 32 times the original agreement.

To review:

• After writing a computer program, DHHS provided data on the largest 20 companies in two days at no cost.

• DHHS will provide data on the next largest 30 companies in eight months for $3,000, if the fee is pre-paid.

In explaining DHHS’ position, Norton anticipated our poor reaction and begged us not to be skeptical. How could we not be?

The program needed to produce this data was already written. It was a matter of someone punching in the names of the 30 next-largest companies, a list of names that we provided to DHHS. No research required.

We even offered to provide information technology expertise by sending one of our employees to the agency’s office to help manage the task in less time for less cost. DHHS, including the commissioner and Norton, promised to work with us, but our repeated offers to help have been ignored.

We turned to state Sen. Peggy Rotundo for help, and she was assured by DHHS that it would work to provide the information at a reasonable price in a reasonable time. It was a worthless assurance.

What really reeks is that DHHS, through Norton, said it could do the job we requested in five hours for $500. No problem. We gave the go-ahead for the work in the same conversation that we asked the state to double-check its fee, and only then did the job balloon to absurd proportions. It is no stretch to conclude the state is more concerned with the revenue the job might produce than satisfying a legitimate request for public information.

The state should be falling over itself to release the information in the public interest, but it isn’t.

The state should be demanding accountability for Maine’s taxpayers, but it isn’t.

If there were compelling public interest in releasing the data on the largest 20 companies, there is no lesser public interest in releasing data on the next 30 largest companies. There is no logic behind which DHHS can hide. Its refusal to provide the requested information at a reasonable fee in a reasonable time is indefensible.

DHHS has thumbed its nose at the public, the press and the Legislature in blocking this request.

The public has a right to know and understand what subsidies are provided by government to private companies. DHHS – for reasons only it can understand – is wrongfully interfering with that right.

The agency can and should release the requested data and we challenge it to do so. Not because the Sun Journal asked for it, but because the people have a right to know how public money – their money – is being spent.

Judith Meyer is vice president of the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition and a managing editor of the Sun Journal. E-mail: jmeyer@sunjournal.com.

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