Sep 15, 2005 3 min read

In the boxing ring of public opinion the Pennsylvania Legislature is finally on the ropes, taking some well-deserved and long-overdue body blows over a pay raise it approved with the patented overconfidence of a reigning champion. But like the heavyweight who overestimates an opponent, the Legislature and Gov. Ed Rendell find themselves in more serious trouble the longer the fight drags on. This time an unintimidated and fed-up public is flexing its own muscle, showing that the governed can go toe-to-toe with those who govern. To the bobbing and weaving of this match we’ll throw what should be a knockout punch: This same Legislature and governor operate under perhaps the weakest open records laws in the nation. All you need to know is that they’ve exempted themselves from the same sort of fiscal accountability that they’ve imposed on other elected officials. Don’t expect much help from the courts on this count, because the Commonwealth’s archaic open records law, which dates to the late 1950s, exempts judges, too. Unlike this elite group, state agencies and court records are covered by current open records law.

Basically, none of the top branches of state government is legally obligated to provide any proof of how they spend your tax money on themselves. Not one state representative, not one state senator, not the governor, and not even head honcho Supreme Court Justice Ralph Cappy has to show you detailed receipts or phone records. So the stage has long been set for fomenting the type of arrogant collusion that manifested itself in the July pay raise, which was carried out in secret by an unholy alliance of all of the above.

These supposed emissaries of a representative democracy thumbed their collective noses at all the things that type of government stands for. And despite all the backtracking efforts now set in motion concerning the pay raise, they should never be forgiven at the ballot box – including those who were against the raises but never spoke out.

Like the past-his-prime boxing great who is floundering on the ropes, the Legislature is attempting to survive this battle by its own version of clinching, in this case trotting out other issues to deflect public ire. Property tax reform, the granddaddy of them all, heads the list, which is certain to grow longer by the day as individual legislators scramble for self-preservation.

But who among them will promote the noble, necessary and honorable notion of changing an open records law crafted back in the Dark Ages, to make sure those who govern at the state’s highest level are made fully accountable to the public they ostensibly serve?

Anyone who doesn’t take that stand deserves to be sent to the canvass by a final, knockout blow on Election Day.