Open up public records

IN AN age of entrenched political antagonism, here’s a proposition everyone can support: A democratic government should be as open as possible. No one – not citizens or businesses, not advocacy groups or the media – should be denied information because there are too many hoops to jump through.

So why has it been so hard for New York to pass a law that would make it a bit more likely for people to get that information? Welcome to Albany, the land of outsized egos and petty turf wars, where good ideas go to die every day.

Now Governor Andrew Cuomo has an opportunity to look like a champion for government transparency. A bill awaiting the governor’s signature would remove one of the biggest obstacles facing those who are wrongly denied documents they have requested under New York’s open-records law – the cost of hiring a lawyer to fight that denial in court.

As a result, many denials never get challenged, and New Yorkers can be left in the dark about ethics scandals or serious violations of the law.

Remember the stop-and-frisk lawsuit that ultimately forced the New York City Police Department to change a practice that disproportionately targeted black and Latino men? Critical data in that case were revealed through freedom-of-information requests that the department fought until a judge ordered their release.

The current bill is a common-sense policy that has been adopted by about a dozen states. There’s no reason to further delay signing this bill.

It’s past time for New York to stop making it so hard for its citizens to learn how their government operates