EDITORIAL: Prying open public matters

It is not the desire of this newspaper to interfere with or publish the identities of would-be employers the Growth Council is recruiting or would have plans to court for Grant County.

That has never been our goal. In fact, at various times the Chronicle-Tribune has learned the names of candidates for economic development projects and withheld such information at the request of local officials in an effort to do nothing to endanger the project. We have done that not because we had to but because we wanted to protect the project and advance the community.

Our goal is the same as the Growth Council’s — to increase the prosperity of Marion and Grant County. We will not act against our community’s interests. This is where we live and earn our living. This is where our readers live.

We think it is very much in the interest of our readers to be able to determine how the Growth Council spends almost $300,000 of their tax money annually. We think the newspaper should be allowed to attend meetings at which certain matters, such as loans to private businesses, programs to assist in home buying and the creation of more entrepreneurs in Grant County, are discussed. None of these things require or lead toward identifying prospective economic development projects that require confidentiality.

For reasons that remain a mystery, the Growth Council is refusing to comply with the basic transparency we would expect from any organization appointed to do the community’s business. On top of that, the Grant County Council fails to provide any oversight of the tax dollars it has enabled the Growth Council to garner from the Economic Development Income Tax. So we have filed an informal complaint with the Indiana Public Access Counselor asserting that because the Growth Council is funded like a public agency it should be subject to the Indiana Open Door Act and the Access to Public Records Law.

We think any organization that does not have to open itself to public inspection, but remains a place to harbor tax money while initiating private programs, is contrary to the spirit of the law. It is unhealthy to have a place where leaders can not only hold the public’s money from view but also pursue unstated agendas under the guise of “economic development.”

This is not that difficult a question when it comes to the public good.