PNA, July 19

Notes from the Capitol: Budget session round-up

By Deborah Musselman, Director of Government Affairs
Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, (717) 703-3077

The figurative smoke is clearing as House and Senate members start their long-delayed summer recess with this week’s passage of the FY 2007-08 budget -- on to the street fairs, ‘ag progress’ events, meetings with ‘concerned citizens’ on any conceivable issue, and let’s hope they can get some relaxation, too. With all the negotiations, dueling press conferences and struggle to find common ground on the budget and related legislation, efforts to craft improvements to the state’s open records law ended up on the back burner as a ‘summer project,’ a non-uncommon occurrence with significant measures. We’re pleased to report, however, that re-affirmations of support for the initiative have started to arrive, in response to a special outreach to legislators in conjunction with our “passopenrecords” blog. As we look to the fall we anticipate efforts to re-focus on Senate Bill 1. Maj. Leader Dominic Pileggi reiterated just this week that open records is a top priority for the fall. [CLICK HERE]

Looking at the just-concluded budget session, a Title 42 bill just signed into law by the Governor, Senate Bill 116, sponsored by Sen. Jay Costa (D-Allegheny Co.), is of more-than passing interest to open government advocates. The bill responds to Post-Gazette articles in recent years about the absence of jury diversity in Allegheny County -- DPW, PennDot, Revenue, and State are required to forward their lists of program recipients, drivers, voters and taxpayers, respectively, to the Office of PA Courts for a statewide voter list; the county may obtain a county-specific ‘blended’ list from the AOPC.

Sen. Costa, the minority chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, added broad ‘confidentiality’ protections to address concerns of the Administration and agencies about protecting individual identifying information. Because the Judicial Code specifically makes the master list of potential jurors open to public access, we pressed for, and were able to obtain, specific ‘exception’ amendments to protect public disclosure language in Title 42. Sen. Costa has been supportive of PNA concerns when they come before the Judiciary Committee, a key committee on First Amendment-related legislation, and in fact is a cosponsor of Senate Bill 765, PNA’s Model Right to Know Act -- the bill that we hope Senate Bill 1 will resemble when it reaches the Governor’s desk.

So what else did they do, this month and in June, besides the big sexy issues that the papers have been covering? Senate Bill 467, which increases the fine for violating the Open Meetings Law to $1,000, passed the Senate in May with no negative votes, although it is still sitting in the House State Government Committee. While we’re not crazy about the piecemeal approach, scandalous situations that have come to light in both Lancaster and Delaware Counties -- well reported by our member papers and highlighted in previous H&D columns -- do seem to show that some elected officials could benefit from such a reminder of their obligations to the public. And what’s up with state police presence around the state? Act 42, an 83-page budget “companion” bill containing implementation language, includes a provision that prohibits the State Police from closing a barracks, in this current fiscal year, until it has conducted a public hearing 30 days after providing notice in “at least two local newspapers” as well as the PA Bulletin.

Overall, we’ve been struck by the thoughtful approach to records and newspaper issues, generally, so far this session. As usual, a few bills passed the House in forms that need an amendment -- for example, to clarify that journalists are exempt from having to obtain a license as a private investigator, and we’ll be working on such measures -- but we can tell you that the handful of bills that truly would harm newspapers in some fundamental way -- like the payraise repealer backlash, when the House voted to replace numerous public notice advertising statutes with posting on the Internet -- are, all, still in their original committee. And we’ll keep working to make sure they stay there.

Now -- back to open records -- let’s focus on improving Senate Bill 1!

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