TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – New Jerseyans will now be paying less to obtain copies of public documents.

Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation Friday that bars state and local governments and agencies from charging people more than the cost of copying the records.

It sets the price for copies of public records to 5 cents per page for letter-size paper and 7 cents per page for legal-size paper.

The state’s Open Public Records Act had previously allowed the governments and agencies to charge 75 cents per page.

Critics called that excessive, noting that people seeking longer documents would have to pay significant costs to obtain them.

The new fees were determined earlier this year by a state appellate court.

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