The New Year: Hope . . . and Doubt
Jan 7th, 2008 by JamieB
As the old year drew to a close and the new year dawned, here is what some newspapers across the state were thinking about the days ahead:
In 1957, a loaf of bread cost 19 cents, a gallon of milk $1, gasoline averaged 30 cents per gallon. Computers were scarce (and the size of a tractor-trailer), photocopiers were just emerging, and e-mail was a glint in the eye of some computer genius.
Today, bread sells for $3.59 a loaf, milk $3.38 a gallon, and gas costs 10 times as much. Today, computers dominate every aspect of our lives. The Internet and e-mail have changed the way we communicate, obtain and store information, even how we think.
Also in 1957, Pennsylvania enacted a rudimentary law granting citizens the right to view a tiny range of government records. Six decades later, Pennsylvania’s open records law remains virtually unchanged, relegating citizens to the “Howdie Doody” days when it comes to finding out what their governments and officials are doing.
This month, the Senate is expected to take up Senate Bill 1 as amended and passed by the House. Common Cause/PA urges all citizens interested in moving Pennsylvania toward the 21st century by getting this law pushed over the “goal line” to contact their state senators to support approving this vital law.
Tell them not to “fumble” this opportunity. Your right to know is at stake.
The Issue: With more than 50 new faces in the Legislature, 2007 dawned with the promise that some major reforms might take place to make government more open and responsive.
Our Opinion: Except for some minor changes, lawmakers have failed to live up to that promise.
As the year draws to a close, the Pennsylvania Legislature can take credit for some procedural changes, but little else.
January in Harrisburg can be duller than dust, but a showdown between the House and Senate next month over rewriting the 50-year-old Right-to-Know Law could change the way state government works – at least in the sense that officials tend to act more responsively and responsibly when the public is looking over their shoulders.
The House and Senate have adopted different versions of an open-records bill, and they agree on the most basic reforms. . . . Still, there are issues to be hammered out. The law should be retroactive. It should encompass legislators’ e-mails, with some protections for privacy, such as personal information that could lead to identity theft. (However, phone numbers and birth dates don’t meet that criteria.) The open records office, which would handle inquiries and complaints, should be part of the state Ethics Commission, where it is likely to be a more independent watchdog than a bureau in another department.
The law should cover financial records of the legislative and judicial branches, along with the four state-related universities, community colleges and the state’s college loan agency.
The system must be user-friendly, too, with affordable copying fees and sanctions against officials who repeatedly throw up roadblocks.
So here’s what we think will make for a positive 2008, in no particular order:
A state open records law that represents more than an empty gesture. A proposal under consideration now makes a nice start by reversing the presumption that most records require special action to disclose.
It’s a new year for Pennsylvania, but don’t be surprised if 2008 winds up being the same old thing.
As we’ve seen far too often, getting change in Pennsylvania can be more difficult than sticking with those resolutions to eat better and exercise more.
It’s easy to fall back on the same old ways personally, and the same is true for the Keystone State.
So in the spirit of getting the New Year started on the right foot, we propose some things we’d like for our officials in Harrisburg to accomplish in 2008:
Pass a real open records law in Pennsylvania. It’s time to replace the current statute that too often tells people they don’t have the right to know to one based on the premise that all of government is an open book with certain limited exceptions.
Government is created with our dollars to do the public’s business, and the government should have as few secrets from the taxpayers as possible and that includes the state Legislature.
Some in Harrisburg have suggested that senators and representatives should carve out an exception for themselves in any new open-records law. That’s inappropriate. The state Senate and the state House of Representatives should have to abide by the same rules as a local borough council. If our officials in Harrisburg cannot operate in that manner, we have the wrong people in the state Capitol.