Paychecks and privacy seem to go hand-in-hand. While some people like to brag about their payday bonanza, others would rather not talk about it.
That sense of secrecy carries over to the public sector. On one hand, reluctance to disclose public-employee pay is understandable. A person's earnings -- in most cases -- are between that person and the IRS. On the other hand, public expenditures are -- by definition -- the public's business, and they should be part of the public discourse.
So where does the balance between privacy for government employees and the public's right to know fall? Squarely with the public.
The collection and use of taxes -- even in a democracy -- is a coercive act of government. Since people cannot legally choose not to pay taxes, they should at the very least know where that money is going and whether it is worth the cost. Such knowledge also should include the people who are getting it.
A state Senate bill passed recently that addresses this very topic. The bill would require that all government agencies -- from the state level down to the smallest municipality -- make their employee salaries public. The information would be posted on the Internet as well.
Such disclosure may be a hard pill to swallow for public employees, but it is necessary medicine for good government.
Full salary disclosure would open the door to scrutiny of public employees and their salaries, and lead to much debate. That is a good thing.
Scrutiny would help taxpayers understand how their government works, who benefits from it (and whether those benefits are fair or unjustified.)
At the same time, the public will gain a greater understanding of the true costs of doing governance. It should make for some interesting discussions, to put it mildly.
The greatest benefit of the bill would be to get another toe in the door of closed government.
Pennsylvania ranks near the bottom of public access to "public" records. The government culture has been one of "we'll let you know if we think you need to," instead of one acknowledging that a government of, for and by the people means the people also own all the paperwork.
Public employees whose salaries are exposed for all to see will know instinctively that their other work should be exposed for all to see, too. There will be little incentive to keep any government secrets when their paychecks are posed on the Web.
n For more information on open-records laws, see the Web site www.passopenrecords.org.
