It always rankles when someone elected to public office tells the people who put him there that they don't really need to know something about government.
It further rankles when people asking for information are characterized as "nosy."
But that is exactly what state Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, said last week as he explained to reporter John Cheves his plan for killing a bill that would provide more transparency about our deeply troubled state retirement system.
House Bill 48, sponsored by Lexington Republican Robert Benvenuti, would bring pensions paid to retired state workers under the state Open Records Act and, thereby, open to the public.
Currently, salaries paid to state government employees are all subject to open records, but the publicly subsidized retirement benefits they receive when they leave government are not. This just doesn't make any sense. Continue >>>
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