One can’t always measure the defense of an argument by its defender’s reluctance to land in a witness chair. Universally speaking, it’s an uncomfortable place to be. However, the appearance of Missouri’s revenue department director this week before a legislative committee on tax policy might have held some justifiable unease. His case for raising fees on certain reports seemed thin.

As background, the Department of Revenue imposed a new fee structure for its employees to produce Missouri driver records. The previous fee for an individual’s access to a record was $1.25 per document. Effective May 1, the new fee is $7 per record. That’s more than a five-fold increase from one day to the next.

Omar Davis, the revenue director, did not much want to appear before the General Assembly’s joint committee on tax policy. According to a News-Press reporter, he said the fee increase stands outside the jurisdiction of a legislative panel. Sen Brad Lager, a Savannah Republican and chairman of the committee, read a statute regarding the panel’s charge — one that spoke of “the collection and administration of state and local taxes and fees” — and disagreed with the director’s assessment.

Even within the context of a constitutional disagreement, the animus of the hearing seemed oddly placed. Mr. Davis called the hearing “ludicrous” and regarded the gathering as “political theater.” While political theater certainly plays out at times in Jefferson City, the invective arrived as curiously strident when directed at those who control the purse strings of government offices.

Beyond this, the director forwarded an argument that insurance and other concerns that access large numbers of these records are only out to “make a profit off of Missouri drivers’ records.” That might well be right: some companies do business with use of government-provided records. But is it a department’s unilateral judgment that this should not be done? In this case, what was OK on April 30 became discouraged on May 1, and no one elected took a vote on that.

In addition, statutes speak to the allowable charge for providing access to government records. The Missouri Press Association argued to the panel that state law agencies can charge only for copying documents. Anything in excess stands as beyond the authority of the agency.

Money raised from the fee increase goes supposedly to offset the cost of replacing an antiquated computer system that stores the information. That seems an arguable justification but one for another venue. Insurance companies will pass along the fee increases to consumers. To consumers, something called a fee or a tax comes out of a personal billfold.

Mr. Lager, showing Northwest Missouri level-headedness, voiced a willingness to find middle ground. Mr. Davis appeared unwilling. That seems a bad way to accommodate the public’s best interest.