Gov. John Baldacci’s pocket veto of legislation that would have infringed public access to important legislative and municipal information, LD 1878, is a victory for clear, open transparent government in Maine.

Introduced as a cost-saving measure, LD 1878 proposed the wholesale shift of legislative rulemaking notices from newspaper publication onto the Internet. An amended version of the bill, passed by the Legislature, proposed to shorten newspaper notices, and direct readers online for fuller, more explanatory version of the same notice.

The bill would have also permitted placing municipal notices into publications with third-class mailing permits, which are generally papers with free distributions, like advertising-laden shoppers delivered through the general mail.

Sustained savings from this bill were estimated at more than $1 million; as the governor pointed out in remarks about his pocket veto, many Maine newspapers – including the Sun Journal – agreed to $1.1 million in rate reductions to preserve the full publication of notices in newspapers, and not jeopardize the public’s right-to-know.

With the savings from the bill fulfilled by this compromise, the governor wisely preserved the open dissemination of legislative and local government activity where the public has historically sought and found it: local newspapers.

An open government is sacrosanct, and providing public information about its actions is a core government function. Like justice, public safety, or education, transparency is a duty in which government cannot compromise.

If the state wishes to pursue a vigorous information technology project around public information, including notices, we would support it. In this digital age, government does itself a disservice by shortchanging Web surfers.

This effort, however, shouldn’t come at the expense of current information sources or systems. The placing of full public notices in newspapers is a tried-and-true system, one that may not always yield the results some lawmakers would like, but one that is effective and works quite well, nonetheless.

We commend Gov. Baldacci for his decision, and applaud his support for open government in Maine.