Good, and Better

Good, and Better

Time was, a citizen interested in following the deliberations of the state legislature faced daunting obstacles. Reading bills required a trek to the General Assembly building to pick up pounds of paper printouts. Votes were hard to follow. To watch a floor session, you had to be there.

Technology has made life -- and public access to vital democratic information -- much easier. Virginians now can read bills online, keep up with their progress the same way, and watch streaming video of Assembly proceedings from the comfort of an easy chair. They also can track political contributions through, e.g., the Virginia Public Access Project. And they can see how well various state agencies are meeting their goals by looking at their scorecards on Virginia Performs, a Web site set up by the Kaine administration to improve agency accountability.

What's more, this year the Assembly passed a couple of measures to improve public access. One establishes a searchable budget database -- a step that should help clear up some of the notorious murk surrounding the state's finances. Another requires the minutes of public meetings be taken down in writing.

All that is to the good. Lawmakers deserve praise for adopting those reforms, and for an improved sensitivity to the importance of being open and accountable to the citizens they serve.

But there is always room for improvement. This year, for instance, the legislature failed to pass a measure that would have brought more clarity to lobbyist expenditures through more rigorous itemization requirements. At present, if a lobbying group holds a reception and dinner for multiple lawmakers, it can divide the tab in such a way as to fall below reporting requirements, so that legislators do not have to report the event on disclosure forms. Reporting requirements also permit too much vagueness; a lobbyist can, for instance, report that he met with Sen. So-and-So about "all matters pertaining to client" -- period.

Legitimate objections to full disclosure do come up. Some private information should stay private. A digital database of personal medical records, for instance, might improve health care -- but it should not enable individuals to look up their neighbors' patient histories.

On the whole, the commonwealth has done a decent job of letting the sun shine where it should. But there is always room for improvement -- and Virginians should not relent in seeking it.