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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Hostility to Open Gov't in Pennsylvania

This story describes how Pennsylvania state government isn't exactly welcoming a new state open government ombudsman.

To all of those who claim a pro-open government stance is just an "easy" political issue for politicians, we ask this: if being pro-open government is such a political no-brainer, why is the Governor of Pennsylvania acting this way?

If open government is such a no-brainer political issue, why aren't local government officials in Washington state falling all over themselves to provide public records and open up meetings? It's because open government means: (1) scrutiny on the decisions of those running things, and (2) ire sometimes from agency staff members (and their unions) who might be doing something wrong. Guess which side is the "easy" political decision?