Final in a seriesHARRISBURG — It’s been nearly a decade since state lawmakers completely rewrote the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law, making fundamental changes to what had widely been considered among the nation’s weakest legislation on access to government records.The revised law has made a vast amount of information available to the public, substantially increased the workload for state courts and produced a number of proposals to amend it. A look at some of what’s been under consideration.Law overhaulThe state Senate voted unanimously a year ago for Senate Bill 411 — designated by the phone number to reach information — and the proposal had a lengthy hearing this spring by the House State Government Committee.The bill, written by the same (now former) state senator who sponsored the 2008 rewrite of the open records law, would clamp down drastically on inmate requests, expand the law to cover economic and industrial development authorities and cover campus police in the same way as municipal police departments.The bill also would give agencies a bit more time to respond, codify into law court decisions that have given the Office of Open Records the power to make confidential reviews of records to resolve disputes and let agencies charge for information sought for commercial purposes.The bill appears likely to die when the current two-year legislation session expires at the end of this month, but the state Government Committee chairman, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, said his staff continues to work on the issue and he expects a fresh proposal to be introduced early next year.Birth, addressesThe state Supreme Court recently resolved a long-running legal dispute about privacy by ruling that disclosing certain information by government agencies violates privacy rights and can’t be done unless there is a public interest favoring disclosure.That case involved a request to schools for names and addresses of all employees.The Legislature has also considered several bills regarding the accessibility of names and addresses, proposals that are likely to die at the end of the month.Two lawmakers have written bills that would ban disclosure of dates of birth under the Right-to-Know Law.Gov. Wolf’s thoughtsAsked about Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s thoughts on changes to the Right-to-Know Law, a spokesman said he wants to see it apply more fully to the judicial and legislative branches of government.The current law exempts many of the records kept and generated by the General Assembly and the state’s sprawling court system.Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan said the governor also supports forcing the four state-related universities to disclose more under the open records law.Commercial usesThe stalled Right-to-Know Law revisions include allowing governments to charge for requests that are deemed to be for commercial purposes, and at least three separate bills also would make that change. In two cases, the costs would be levied based on how much time it takes public employees to fulfill the request, in 15-minute increments.Inmate requestsInmates deluge the Department of Corrections with Right-to-Know Law requests, accounting for more than 1,000 of the 1,300 such inquiries the agency had fielded this year through the first week in October. Inmates also sprinkle inquiries throughout state and county government.Those requests are often frivolous, and Senate Bill 411 would generally restrict inmate Right-to-Know Law requests to criminal records about their own case; institutional housing information; department policies; and the prisoners’ own financial, work, educational, tax, voting, licensing and disciplinary records.BargainingThe state Senate last year passed a measure to require that the public be notified of government union contract agreements before they are approved. That legislation is pending in the House.