The House recessed for Thanksgiving last week without acting on a new open-records bill that had eviscerated meaningful reform. A debate had produced some amendments to restore a greater degree of openness to state and local governments. In earlier sessions House leaders might well have forced a vote before the recess, but they said they did not do so this time in deference to new House rules that require waiting periods between the introduction of amendments and votes. That reform could produce good results if lawmakers take the intervening time to consider the role of the Legislature’s closed-door culture in contributing to credibility-killing scandals affecting the House.

Attorney General Tom Corbett is conducting an investigation into the distribution of more than $2 million in bonuses — $1.9 million by House Democratic leaders alone — to state legislative aides for 2006. The key issue is whether the public money was paid to some of those staffers for their work on political campaigns. One staffer, for example, received a bonus equivalent to 40 percent of her salary, even though she took a leave of absence for more than a quarter of the year to work on political campaigns.

Regardless of what Mr. Corbett finds, lawmakers are able to concoct such blatant abuses because of the culture of secrecy in Harrisburg. Compensation is recorded in public records, but the decisions to spend money should be the most public of processes rather than at the whim of caucus leaders. It is not their money, after all. Yet details of this spending were kept quiet until exposed by the news media and subsequently investigated by Mr. Corbett.

Likewise, House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese last week fired seven staffers in connection with another case, the arrest of former Democratic Rep. Frank LaGrotta for the alleged hiring of his relatives as ghost employees.

There is nothing complicated about creating an effective open-records law. Presume that almost all public records, with very few exceptions, are open to public access. Place the burden and cost of proving otherwise on public officials who attempt to withhold records from disclosure. Create substantial penalties for withholding public information. Eliminate any exemptions for the legislative and judicial branches. Train government personnel accordingly and promote, rather than fear, openness.

Many of the failures of state government stem from its secrecy. The Legislature should embrace the pressure for open-records reform as an opportunity to establish a culture of openness and credibility in the Capitol, rather than as a risk that limits their power.