Source: Reuters

Massachusetts to allow access to Romney files

WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 6, 2011 8:04pm EST

By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts will allow some public access to hundreds of previously off-limits boxes of official records generated by Mitt Romney's office when he was governor from 2003 to 2007, a state official said on Tuesday.

Romney has asserted that a 1997 decision by the Massachusetts state supreme court means that while paper records of his administration are property of the state, they are exempt from public disclosure.

But the state had allowed access to some of the estimated 600 boxes of paper records from Romney's governorship held by the state archives.

The surge in requests to review the records comes after reports that Romney spent nearly $100,000 in state funds to replace computers in his office at the end of his term as part of an unprecedented effort to keep his records secret.

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