It’s Sunshine Week in Pennsylvania: the week during which newspapers and news media organizations across the state remind everyone that public information — and the public’s right to know — are indispensable parts of American democracy.

So here is our lesson for today: Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial candidates need to do a better job of giving voters the information they need during the run-up to this year’s mid-term elections.

A case-in-point: the refusal of some candidates to release their tax returns — foundational documents that can shed light on a person’s priorities, financial standing and more — for public review.

To be clear, candidates are well within their rights to do this. State law does not require gubernatorial candidates to release the financial documents. Instead, the state requires candidates to submit a statement of financial interest to the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission. The statement contains information about candidates’ sources of income, debt, and investments.

But tax return documents provide more information than the required state forms. And tradition and transparency can be powerful motivators. Most gubernatorial candidates in Pennsylvania have released all or part of their federal tax returns since the 1990s.

Gov. Tom Wolf, a first-term Democrat who is running for re-election, has promised to release the first two pages of his 2017 returns and open the rest to reporters’ inspection.

Some detail is better than nothing. But any candidate committed to transparency and willing to work to earn voters’ trust and respect should be willing to release their returns — and not just part of them or just last year’s returns, but their full returns for a period of multiple years.

These documents allow voters to glean vital information about a candidate’s financial and business dealings. They also give clues to a candidate’s character and values. What is their favorite charity, and how much did they give? Who are they in business with? How much did they pay in real estate taxes?

Candidates for the highest elected office in Pennsylvania are asking voters to trust them to run a state government that has struggled mightily with transparency and ethics.

But trust is earned and built through gestures like the one candidates are refusing to make. It’s troubling that the people seeking our highest office don’t seem to understand that.