Pa. open-records law was worth the wait
Opinion • Feb. 17, 2008
It took 51 years to update, but after 13 months of legislative wrangling, opening up records in Pennsylvania took a step forward last Thursday. That's when Gov. Ed Rendell signed the law, whose prime sponsor was Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, Delaware County's own Republican state senator from the 9th District in Chester.
For more than 50 years Pennsylvania operated under an antiquated Right-to-Know Law that fell under more and more disapproval as the years passed from its 1957 enactment.
The old law stipulated information about the government and its agencies was secret unless released by the government. Public-policy groups ranked Pennsylvania near the bottom of the 50 states for its policy.
Now the state Legislature has passed a bill that specifies documents of state and local agencies of government are considered open to the public unless there is a specific and important reason to keep them private.
The law will not take effect until Jan. 1, 2009. Pileggi said that is a reasonable amount of time for local and state agencies to hire and train open-records officers.
Training is a must because the bill prescribes penalties for agencies that stall on giving out public information. Fines can go up to $1,500 for officials who violate the new law's requirements plus court costs for officials who are proved to have acted in bad faith.
Critics of the current law, including Barry Kauffman, director of Pennsylvania Common Cause, pointed out some records have limited access and there are no criminal penalties for officials. Kauffman was especially disappointed at the absence of a truly independent open-records agency. But in an age when everything involving elected officials seems to move in slow motion, a new day for open records is a reason to celebrate.
For 19 months, from 2005 and 2007, the Harrisburg Patriot-News fought a court battle to find out how the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency spent its money. Court battles should now be in the rear view mirror for residents of this state, who deserve to know how their government operates.
It may have taken 13 months, but this Legislature should be congratulated for finding a way to compromise on such an important issue. Maybe officials down I-95 in Washington, D.C., could learn a lesson from the Pennsylvania process.
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