PORT ALLEN — The West Baton Rouge Parish Council voted unanimously to support Parish President Jason Manola's plan to charge four times as much as the state does for copies of public records.

The council voted on the measure Thursday, Oct. 9. 

The new cost of records that the vote supported is $1 per page for the first 25 pages created to comply with a public records request. The state of Louisiana charges a quarter per page. The WBR rate would drop to 50 cents for pages 26-500, WBRZ reported in the days leading up to the vote. 

Manola also intended to require a deposit of 75 percent of the fees to be paid before pulling records. 

State law and case law require that open records fees be "reasonable" and cover only the cost of complying with requests. The law says that governments cannot set them in an effort to generate income.