Paul LePage accuses left of bombarding his office with FOAA requests

Gov. Paul LePage called the public records requests flooding his office “a form of intimidation” during a radio interview Tuesday.

“I just find it outrageous” that opponents bombard his office with demands for records that “they never use” because they don’t find anything untoward, the governor said.

The Associated Press reported this week that the state got more than 1,000 requests for information last year alone from people citing the Freedom of Access Act.

LePage told radio host Matt “Matty B” Boutwell on Z105.5’s Breakfast Club that “this is the way the left operates. They just keep us bogged down in getting information.”

The governor griped that he has had to hire “three or four people” who spend their time just checking on the requested records and redacting information from them that can’t be disclosed.

Though the state can charge a small fee for copies, LePage said, the money doesn’t cover even a quarter of the cost of the workers’ time that’s devoted to open government requests, leaving taxpayers covering the rest of the tab.

LePage said some previous administrations ignored requests for information, but his lawyers say he has to respond to them.

“It gets outrageous,” the governor said during the interview slated for airing on Wednesday and Friday.