Editorial

The Williamsport Sun-Gazette

The new Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law is on an understandable shakedown cruise.

A significantly revised platform for public information went into effect this year about a half century behind the times. That's a lot of catching up.

So shakedown this.

In its first appeals ruling, the brand new state Office of Open Records ruled that names of employees of government contractors and birth dates of government employees are public information.

On the other hand, appeals officers for both chambers of the Pennsylvania Legislature said the Right-to-Know Law does not give the public the right to review correspondence between lawmakers and lobbyists.

While there are 19 items under the new law that are listed as legislative records open to the public, those generally pertain to finances or provide documentation of the General Assembly's meetings and decisions.

Pennsylvania Newspaper Association lawyer Teri Henning said she generally agreed with the appeals officers' analysis so we'll fall in line.

The bottom line is that citizens of Pennsylvania are being given unprecedented access to the business of its public bodies with these Right-to-Know Law revisions.

But we don't get to be a fly on the wall. That's what e-mail correspondence between lawmakers and lobbyists would amount to.

Given the power of certain lobbies in Harrisburg over legislation and public funding, we suspect such e-mails are often the place where the rubber meets the road. We can't prove it, and that's the point.

We'd love the assurance that legislative decisions on public education and health insurance are based strictly on the merits of arguments made in legislative sessions. All public evidence suggests that's not the case.

The next step would be to find out just how these often curious votes that seem out of touch with most of Pennsylvania take place. If the turning point is an e-mail from an influential lobbyist pumping major dollars into the re-election of Pennsylvania's key powerbrokers, we'll have to count on someone telling us that's the case.