The official Virginia homepage... is a PAY SITE??

The BBQ Pit
1

http://www.state.va.us/ forwards to http://www.vipnet.org/cmsportal/ which is the " Official Commonwealth of Virginia Home Page"

…it has various things, and then “Premium Services - Enhanced access services available to subscribers.”
…“Users must be Premium Services Subscribers to take advantage of VIPNet’s Premium Services. Simply complete and submit the VIPNet Premium Service Subscription Agreement(You will need Adobe’s Acrobat Readerin order to download the agreement)and any required addendum(s) with the $75.00 annual subscription fee. Approved users will be given a user id and password to access the requested applications.”

Geeeez!

My tax dollars at work?

2

Although, most of the information on the pay site is information that shouldn’t be available to the general public anyway, like DMV records and the salaries of government employees. And, Virginia’s not the only government entity to charge fees for information that would only be of interest to a limited number of people. The US courts, for example, use the PACER system, which is fee based, to provide access to pleadings and decisions.

3

Hey, we’re poor here in Virginia! We need all the $$$$$$$$$ we can get since our last governor spent us into a huge hole!

4

The Premium Services offered seem to be pretty boing stuff. If they want a quick buck so people can track a bill’s progress through the commonwealth’s legislature then so be it.

5

grumble

Still strikes me as tacky or something. Somehow wrong, in some way.

6

Well of course. I come across pay-for-Vagina sites all the - oooooh Virginia.

7

Actually, salaries of government employees IS in the public domain. So are arrest records and many court documents.
Drivers’ licenses, depending on the state, are also open.