Records law is last to falter

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, December, 2007 | by Angela Couloumbis and Mario F. Cattabiani Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG - With more than 50 new lawmakers in the House and Senate vowing to bring change to the state Capitol, there was hope that 2007 would be the "Year of Reform": greater access to open records, tougher campaign-finance laws, and, one day, perhaps even a smaller legislature. Instead, lawmakers are poised to leave Harrisburg this week without having passed even the one government reform bill they believed could be sent to Gov.

Rendell before Christmas: the expanded open-records law. That has left good-government advocates grading the year not in terms of reforms, but by the number of scandals - including a looming investigation by the state Attorney General's Office into whether taxpayer-funded bonuses were used to reward legislative staffers for campaign work last...