§ 305. Use of electronic records. 1. In accordance with rules and
regulations promulgated by the electronic facilitator, government
entities are authorized and empowered to produce, receive, accept,
acquire, record, file, transmit, forward, and store information by use
of electronic means. If any such government entity uses electronic
records, it must also ensure that anyone who uses the services of such
government entity may obtain access to records as permitted by statute,
and receive copies of such records in paper form in accordance with fees
prescribed by statute. No person shall be required to submit or file any
record electronically to any government entity except as otherwise
provided by law. Government entities that obtain, store, or utilize
electronic records shall not refuse to accept hard copy, non-electronic
forms, reports, and other paper documents for submission or filing
except as otherwise provided by law.

2. A government entity shall have the authority to dispose of or
destroy a record in accordance with the arts and cultural affairs law,
regardless of format or media.

3. An electronic record shall have the same force and effect as those
records not produced by electronic means.

4. The director shall study how electronic documents and the
mechanisms and processes for obtaining access to and reading electronic
data can be created, maintained, exchanged, and preserved by the state
in a manner that encourages appropriate government control, access,
choice, interoperability, and vendor neutrality. The study shall
consider, but not be limited to, the policies of other states and
nations, management guidelines for state archives as they pertain to
electronic documents, public access, expected storage life of electronic
documents, costs of implementation, and savings. The director shall
solicit comments regarding the creation, maintenance, exchange, and
preservation of electronic documents by the state from stakeholders,
including but not limited to, the office of the state comptroller, the
office of the attorney general, the state archives, and the state
historian. The director shall also solicit comments from members of the
public. The director shall report findings and recommendations to the
governor, the speaker of the assembly, and the temporary president of
the senate on or before January fifteenth, two thousand eight.