Closed-door meetings. Secret sessions. No public hearings. Then, suddenly, action.

If public officials with Jefferson County, the City of Port Townsend, the Port of Port Townsend or Jefferson County Public Utility District had behaved in the way the state Legislature behaved during the past few weeks in hammering out a state budget, there would be letters to the editor and calls for resignations.

Well, maybe.

The Legislature did avoid a shutdown last week with an eleventh-hour bipartisan deal that supposedly resolved the prickly problem of how to fund schools in the state.

But details are only now trickling out – after the deal was done – on how that is to be accomplished through a combination of tax hikes, tax cuts and more.

There is a sales-tax increase as well as an elimination of tax breaks on bottled water. Some school districts in the state will see a property-tax increase, some won’t.

Stories in The Seattle Times acknowledge that parents, taxpayers and educators are still trying to figure out the impacts on schools. Seriously, after it’s a fait accompli.

Frank Garred, a former owner of The Leader who now serves as the coordinating editor of the Washington State Newspaper Association’s Olympic News Bureau, said it well in a July 1 email when he sent out information about school-funding bills and the general budget that was signed by Gov. Jay Inslee.

“During floor ‘debate’ on the budget bill, some emphasis was placed on the secrecy surrounding development of the result [of the budget]. Not much has yet been written regarding this process, but a question goes begging: How many of you would tolerate your city council, your county commission, your school board or any other local public agency crafting a budget in secrecy?” Garred asked editors.

“And we wonder how tolerant the public is of this silent action: Do they know or care?”

Sadly, his last question is perhaps the one that needs answering first.

Why is the public tolerating public officials going behind closed doors to do public business on what amounts to a $43.7 billion budget that increases spending by 13.5 percent and includes an estimated $5 billion in revenue increases from existing and new taxes?

We’ve just celebrated the Fourth of July – a holiday that marks our nation’s independence from rule by a government in which our forefathers had no say.

And now, 241 years later, we do nothing when our government takes action behind closed doors.

— Allison Arthur