Go slow
Usually, we’re the first to criticize members of the Pennsylvania Legislature for failing to take action on an issue of importance to residents of the commonwealth.
However, there’s one bill before the state House of Representatives that we hope legislators don’t act on.
The bill is SB444, which would make changes to the state’s Right-to-Know law. The measure was passed recently by the state Senate in a 50-0 vote.
With such overwhelming support from the Senate, you’d like to think that it’s a good bill, but unfortunately it’s not.
While the bill does propose some positive changes, it also contains a lot of questionable items, which need to be reworked before final passage.
On the plus side, SB444 would require state-related universities — Pitt, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln — to open additional financial information.
We’d like to see all their records made public, but this would be a good start.
The bill would also make the process of appealing a denial of records in court less onerous for the person seeking the records.
However, there are a number of problems including:
n The elimination of access to records held by government contractors that directly relate to their governmental work. With the growing practice of outsourcing government functions, keeping these records secret offers untold opportunities for corruption, at worst, and wasteful spending, at best.
n The elimination of access to records of volunteer fire companies and other service organizations, regardless of the amount of public funding they receive.
n The expansion of the “deliberative process exemption” to allow elected officials to withhold from the public any records that “contain or include” information that eventually contributed to a decision. According to the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, this exemption already is one of the most abused and overused by public officials and hardly needs expansion.
n The ability of agencies to release records on their own discretion.
In the end, it’s clear there are problems with the bill, and changes need to be worked out before it becomes law.
When the state’s Right-to-know was passed back in 2008, it amounted to a sea change in Pennsylvania politics.
Almost overnight, Pennsylvania went from having one of the weakest open records laws to one of the strongest.
Since then, it’s become apparent that some changes are needed to keep it as one of the best in the land.
With only days left before the Legislature recesses for the year, it might seem certain that no action will be taken on the bill.
But this is the state Legislature, and you can never be certain what our lawmakers will do.
Let’s hope they’ll do the right thing and make certain that the best bill is passed, even if that takes waiting until 2015.
We hope that over the next couple of months, the problems could be worked out in the state Legislature and a much better bill could be passed by next January.
By rushing to action now, members of the state House of Representatives would be doing a disservice to all those who have fought so hard to promote transparency and accessibility to the various layers of government in Pennsylvania.