Keep your fingers crossed that we get a viable and strong Open Records law.
The state Senate has passed an open-records bill that finally would create much greater transparency in the operation of local and state governments. As passed, the bill is strong. With a touch more pro-openness tweaking, it could become exemplary.
Key provisions of the bill include a presumption, in most cases, that government records are open to public scrutiny, inclusion of legislative and judicial records, inclusion of state-affiliated universities, creation of an Office of Open Records, and higher fines for public officials who fail to comply with legitimate records requests.
The House should adopt those measures and improve on them in a few ways, rather than gutting the bill, as it did in October.
Daily and Sunday Review – Pa. open records legislation needs commitment from Pickett and Baker
