EDITORIAL – Pennsylvanians deserve right to open records

A new open records bill was unanimously approved by the Pennsylvania Senate Wednesday,… A new open records bill was unanimously approved by the Pennsylvania Senate Wednesday, allowing Pennsylvanians more access to government spending records, e-mails between legislators and lobbyists, government contracts and much more.

Pennsylvania’s current open records system, known for being one of the worst systems in the country, calls for requestors to prove that a certain record should be made public.

The current bill, however, is a lot more convenient. It allows for all records to be presumed open and accessible unless they meet the exclusions specified in the bill. These exclusions include portions of documents with Social Security numbers, individual medical records and police investigative records.

House legislators will likely vote on the bill next week, and judging by the Senate’s overwhelming support, we can expect to see majority, bipartisan approval.

The process to improve Pennsylvania’s open records system began a year ago. It took a while for Pennsylvania to reach this point, but it seems that Pennsylvanians are finally well on their way to gaining more access to government records.

One of the most important and relevant features of the bill is that it not only applies to state and local government bodies, but also to state-related universities like Pitt.

This change would have come in handy months ago when the University was rebuilding a portion of the Petersen Events Center, one of many expensive and irresponsible projects dealing with the Pete – all of which cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The negligence of those in charge of the project led to the misuse of money. When Pitt officials failed to provide the public with details of the project, there was no way to hold the University accountable for its carelessness.

But the change is better late than never. Students will now be able to see what Pitt is doing with tuition money and why the price of tuition keeps increasing.

Furthermore, students will have greater access to Pitt’s investment deals and why, for example, the University is so reluctant to participate in the Sudan divestment movement.

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said, according to the Post-Gazette, that “Pennsylvania needs a strong open-records law because transparency builds trust in government