Harrisburg's effort to cure its addiction to cozy corruptions can take a pair of steps forward this week, as legislators vote on two ways to make themselves more accountable to the public.
Today, House lawmakers get a chance to approve a measure to make their toothless ethics committee more effective. They should do so.
For too long, the panel has been under the sole control of party leaders, who oversaw appointments to the eight-member committee. That helped to ensure that the committee didn't police the House effectively.
A proposal adopted by the bipartisan Speaker's Reform Commission would improve that situation. The majority and minority party leaders would get two appointments each, but the remaining four seats would be chosen by the House clerk randomly from a pool of legislators who apply.
While there is ample skepticism about whether the legislature is truly willing to enforce its own ethics rules, this change at least would create better conditions for effective oversight.
Also, the reform commission, headed by Reps. Josh Shapiro (D., Montgomery) and David Steil (R., Bucks), recommended that each lawmaker attend two hours of ethics training every two years.
In the second step, the House State Government Committee is expected later this week to approve a proposal to strengthen the state's open-records law. The improved version should put the law on the side of residents seeking information on a variety of aspects of state and local government decision-making.
The state's open-records law is one of the weakest in the land. It places the burden on citizens to prove why a government record should be open for inspection.
A measure sponsored by Rep. Tim Mahoney (D., Fayette) would shift the burden onto state and local agencies to argue why records should be kept secret. That's how it should be.
Mahoney's bill would cover the legislature, which is currently exempt. It would create an independent office to decide on requests. Legislators were still fine-tuning the proposal last week, addressing possible exemptions.
Things such as medical records, for example, rightly should be excluded from public inspection. But there should be no blanket exemption for legislators' e-mail, as some officials advocate. The question comes down to content. If a legislator's e-mail addresses public policy, it should be fair game.
Still another worthwhile proposal comes from Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.), who wants to create a blue-ribbon commission to study the state Constitution. It would be a prelude to a possible overhaul of the Constitution, the last of which occurred 40 years ago.
By approving these measures, legislators can nudge state government toward greater disclosure and accountability.