What is OPRA, and how does it affect tax records?

• A. Open Public Records Act; it governs access to government records, subject to privacy restrictions.
• B. Official Property Records Act; it creates enhanced privacy protections for tax records.
• C. Ordinance and Public Records Allocation; it allocates records to municipal departments.
• D. Open Property Records Agreement; it guides cross-agency data sharing.

Answer: (A)

OPRA stands for Open Public Records Act. It governs how the public may access government records, while allowing for privacy exemptions. In the context of tax records, records kept by the tax assessor or tax collector are government records and are generally accessible, but personal information about individuals (such as names linked to private data and other sensitive details) must be protected or redacted under OPRA’s privacy exemptions. So OPRA enables public transparency of tax-related documents, with necessary privacy protections.