What can a Wisconsin authority charge for records? The fee rules.

Some states hand records officers a menu: so many cents per page, so many dollars per hour of staff time. Wisconsin does not. The Public Records Law never sets a per-page rate. Instead, Wis. Stat. 19.35(3) names a short list of chargeable tasks, caps each at the authority’s actual, necessary and direct cost, and hangs two dollar thresholds on the math: a $50 floor before any location fee exists, and a $5 line before prepayment can be required.

The list is also exclusive. The DOJ Public Records Law Compliance Guide (June 2025) states that an authority may charge a requester only for the specific tasks the legislature identified in the fee provisions of Wis. Stat. 19.35(3), unless another law provides otherwise, citing Milwaukee Journal Sentinel v. City of Milwaukee, 2012 WI 65. If a cost category is not in the statute, it is not on the invoice.

Start with copies. Under 19.35(3)(a), a fee for a copy of a record may not exceed the actual, necessary and direct cost of reproduction and transcription of the record, unless a fee is otherwise specifically established or authorized to be established by law. Where a record’s form does not permit copying and the authority provides a photograph instead, the fee is capped the same way: the actual, necessary and direct cost of photographing and photographic processing ((3)(b)). Actual cost is the ceiling everywhere; there is no markup lane.

Two smaller lanes round out the ordinary fee bill. Postage is chargeable: the actual, necessary and direct cost of mailing or shipping any copy or photograph sent to the requester ((3)(d)). And every fee in the subsection is waivable: the authority may provide copies without charge or at a reduced charge where it determines that waiver or reduction is in the public interest ((3)(e)). That determination belongs to the authority, so a written waiver policy keeps it consistent from request to request.

Prepayment has its own threshold. Under (3)(f), an authority may require a requester to pay in advance only if the total amount exceeds $5. Note the verb: exceeds. A $5.00 total cannot be collected up front; $5.01 can. The paragraph carries one special case: if the requester is a prisoner who failed to pay a fee the authority imposed on a previous request, the authority may require prepayment of both the old balance and the current fee.

2023 Wisconsin Act 253, effective March 31, 2024, created 19.35(3)(h) and opened one carefully fenced exception. An authority that is a law enforcement agency (the paragraph takes its definition from s. 19.36(8)(a)2.) may impose a fee for the actual, necessary and direct cost of redacting recorded audio or video content, whether by pixelization or other means, to the extent redaction is necessary to comply with applicable constitutional, statutory, or common law ((h)2.). Body camera and squad video are the obvious use case. The fee comes with five guardrails, all in the statute:

• No fee for people in the video. The fee may not be imposed when the requester is an individual directly involved in the event the records relate to, that individual’s attorney or other authorized representative, or the individual’s parent or guardian if the individual is under 18 ((h)4.).
• No fee for officer-involved shootings. If the event the requested records relate to is a shooting involving an officer of a law enforcement agency, no redaction fee ((h)5.).
• An exemption for low-volume, non-commercial requesters. The fee may not be imposed when the requester certifies in writing that the content will not be used for financial gain (an award of damages in a civil action does not count) and has not made more than 10 audio or video requests to that authority during the calendar year, counting the current request but excluding requests covered by the two exemptions above ((h)3.). A false certification carries a $10,000 forfeiture for each violation ((h)3.a.).
• Cheapest capable employee. Staff time in the fee must be based on the pay rate of the authority’s lowest paid employee capable of performing the task ((h)6.). The sergeant’s rate is not billable if a records technician can run the redaction software.
• Written estimate first. The authority may not impose the fee unless, before fulfilling the request, it gives the requester a written estimate of the amount ((h)7.).

For every other authority, and for every record that is not recorded audio or video, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel rule still governs: redaction is free to the requester.

Publish your costs in the notice every authority must post under Wis. Stat. 19.34(1), which requires the notice to describe how the public may obtain copies of records and the costs thereof; the mechanics of that notice are covered in our guide to the 19.34 posted notice. Compute copy fees at actual, necessary and direct cost of reproduction, honestly, with no markup (19.35(3)(a)). Bill location only when the actual cost of finding the records reaches $50, and keep review and redaction hours out of that total ((3)(c)). Charge postage at actual cost ((3)(d)), waive fees when the public interest calls for it ((3)(e)), and take prepayment only when the total exceeds $5 ((3)(f)). Never bill review or redaction time, unless your authority is a law enforcement agency redacting audio or video under 19.35(3)(h), in which case work through the five guardrails and put the estimate in writing before you start. Do that, and the excessive-fees clause of 19.37 never applies to you.