HARRISBURG -- A House advisory panel yesterday gave a resounding yes to a plan to increase public access to government records but refused to support term limits for legislators.

The 24-member House Speaker's Reform Commission wrapped up its work after five months. It recommended a stronger Ethics Committee, a redistribution of power to rank-and-file members, campaign contribution limits and more.

The recommendations will be reported back to House leaders who intend to parcel them out to the appropriate standing committees for consideration.

Many of the panel's previous proposals already have been enacted by the Legislature while the others remain under consideration.

Government watchdogs celebrated yesterday's unanimous approval of a recommendation to change the state's presumption that most government records are not public unless a requester proves they should be released.

Instead, the commission recommended that all records be presumed public unless they fall under a list of exemptions for such things as medical records, Social Security numbers, home addresses, trade secrets and labor negotiation strategies.

That list of exceptions likely will be debated and expanded during committee meetings and floor debates.

The Pennsylvania Newspaper Association was pleased with yesterday's vote, but isn't celebrating yet.

"There can be so many exceptions that the change in presumption won't be very meaningful. We don't think that's going to happen, but we have to work to make sure it doesn't," said Deborah Musselman, the association's director of governmental affairs.

"This is still very much a work in progress."

Larry Frankel, lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, is optimistic that change will be enacted that will improve access to government documents without compromising individuals' rights to privacy.

"It should make a significant difference in the public's ability to obtain records about how decisions are made and how public monies are spent," Mr. Frankel said.

Under the current Right-to-Know law, records, accounts, vouchers, minutes, orders and decisions are public.

The important thing, supporters say, is that residents would no longer have the burden of proving a document is public. Instead, the burden of proof would belong to the government entity seeking to withhold the record.

That's a change that Gov. Ed Rendell and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, have supported.

"From here on out, we start with the presumption that every record is a public record," said Rep. David Steil, R-Bucks, co-chairman of the reform commission. Of course, that's only if the full Legislature agrees to the committee's recommendation.

Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-South Union, said that recommendation was the committee's most important work.

"That one change will bring the state of Pennsylvania from the worst to one of the best in terms of public record laws," said Mr. Mahoney, who served on the commission. "A lot of people think this was media-driven, but it's not. It's taxpayer-driven. Taxpayers want to know how their money is spent."

Mr. Steil and co-chairman Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery, said they were disappointed the group did not reach consensus on term limits for committee chairmen.

"It's important to have fresh ideas and, at the committee level, to give different members a chance to serve," Mr. Shapiro said.

The commission yesterday also rejected separate proposals to limit lawmakers' terms to eight years for representatives and 12 years for senators.

On Monday, it voted to reduce the amount of money the Legislature spends on itself and to limit campaign donations but could not agree on the size of those limits.

Meanwhile, the group voted against reducing the size of the Legislature.

Overall, the chairmen were pleased with the result of their five months' work.

"Did we go as far as some might have hoped? Maybe not, but we are breaking new ground here," Mr. Steil said.

Although the commission has no more meetings scheduled, its members are expected to keep pressing its recommendations through the committee process.

"Going forward we have got to help foster these recommendations into bills," said Rep. Mike Vereb, R-Montgomery. "We're all parts of different standing committees so we're going to make sure we keep it going. We're going to want to see these things through."

Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware, expressed a similar sentiment.

"We've done really good work, but these hours will not have been well-spent unless we get open records reform and unless we get campaign finance reform," he said. "We should not view our work as a success if it isn't enacted into law."