Opinion: Clouding up Sunshine Law
OPINION
By Denny Bonavita
[Dubois] Courier-Express
The "good old boys (and girls)" in Harrisburg are covering each other's butts again.
We aren't supposed to notice, because a House-passed bill imposes higher fines for violating the open-meetings "Sunshine Act."
That's all we are supposed to notice: Higher fines.
But the House, which is in bed with school directors and teacher unions, tacked on a provision allowing secretive closed meetings for "safety and security" reasons.
What's that?
Mosquitoes in the ventilation system could present a "safety" concern.
Close the doors! Discuss yet another sweetheart contract with the teachers, one that gives retired teachers pensions almost as outrageously lucrative as the ones given to state legislators!
This is hogwash.
This is why Pennsylvania needs a Constitutional Convention - not a "limited" convention, just designed to repeal the "uniformity" clause that prevents lawmakers from royally shafting targeted groups with higher taxes.
These days, lawmakers can shaft targeted groups by making policy changes. They're trying to put newspapers out of business, and take away still more jobs in our industry, by shifting public notices from newspapers into the Internet, hiding them in plain sight, so you won't be able to find them without a graduate degree in information technology.
If they can get a convention to change the "uniformity" clause, new taxes will not have to apply uniformly to entire classes of taxpayers, so legislators will also be able to, for example, just tax newspapers out of existence once we expose their hypocrisy, corruption, venality and ignorance.
And if they can do that to newspapers today, they'll hit churches tomorrow, "Tea Party" protesters next week, and we'll be en route to a repressive dictatorship instead of a Commonwealth.
More exemptions to the Sunshine Law mean more excuses for shutting out the public.
The bill also fails to add an important safeguard. Reformers wanted it to require that executive sessions be recorded, so that if local governments do break the law by discussing forbidden topics in secret, there will be hard evidence for judicial review.
Higher fines don't mean much if the Sunshine Law is weakened by more exemptions.
But that's our Legislature: Taking care of local incumbents so that local incumbents will take care of Legislative incumbents.
Perhaps the Pennsylvania Senate has more sense - or better ethics. Let's see what it does with the House-passed bill.
By Denny Bonavita
[Dubois] Courier-Express
The "good old boys (and girls)" in Harrisburg are covering each other's butts again.
We aren't supposed to notice, because a House-passed bill imposes higher fines for violating the open-meetings "Sunshine Act."
That's all we are supposed to notice: Higher fines.
But the House, which is in bed with school directors and teacher unions, tacked on a provision allowing secretive closed meetings for "safety and security" reasons.
What's that?
Mosquitoes in the ventilation system could present a "safety" concern.
Close the doors! Discuss yet another sweetheart contract with the teachers, one that gives retired teachers pensions almost as outrageously lucrative as the ones given to state legislators!
This is hogwash.
This is why Pennsylvania needs a Constitutional Convention - not a "limited" convention, just designed to repeal the "uniformity" clause that prevents lawmakers from royally shafting targeted groups with higher taxes.
These days, lawmakers can shaft targeted groups by making policy changes. They're trying to put newspapers out of business, and take away still more jobs in our industry, by shifting public notices from newspapers into the Internet, hiding them in plain sight, so you won't be able to find them without a graduate degree in information technology.
If they can get a convention to change the "uniformity" clause, new taxes will not have to apply uniformly to entire classes of taxpayers, so legislators will also be able to, for example, just tax newspapers out of existence once we expose their hypocrisy, corruption, venality and ignorance.
And if they can do that to newspapers today, they'll hit churches tomorrow, "Tea Party" protesters next week, and we'll be en route to a repressive dictatorship instead of a Commonwealth.
More exemptions to the Sunshine Law mean more excuses for shutting out the public.
The bill also fails to add an important safeguard. Reformers wanted it to require that executive sessions be recorded, so that if local governments do break the law by discussing forbidden topics in secret, there will be hard evidence for judicial review.
Higher fines don't mean much if the Sunshine Law is weakened by more exemptions.
But that's our Legislature: Taking care of local incumbents so that local incumbents will take care of Legislative incumbents.
Perhaps the Pennsylvania Senate has more sense - or better ethics. Let's see what it does with the House-passed bill.