Smithfield and Selma are spending public dollars to determine if some private lands would make good industrial sites. But leaders of both towns are declining to name the private beneficiaries of this public generosity. This failure to name names is troubling and unnecessary.

Unnecessary, because if the two tracts past muster, the N.C. Department of Commerce will then market them to industries and to developers of industrial parks. In other words, the towns are keeping secret information that they hope the state will soon disclose to the world.

Troubling, because when spending public dollars to benefit private landholders, government should err on the side of disclosing too much information, not too little. Taxpayers need to know, for example, that no elected leader or town employee has a financial stake in the lands in question. They need to know, too, that the private landholders haven't given money to the reelection campaigns of council members. Moreover, folks living near the lands have the right to know whether they could soon have industrial neighbors or if the town might have to seize some of their lands for access roads or utility easements. Taxpayers in Smithfield and Selma don't have the answers to these questions because the towns are protecting the interests of the landholders over the citizens' right to know.

State law allows local government to keep a lot of information secret, especially when it comes to industrial recruitment. But this is not a case of sensitive negotiations with a company looking to bring jobs and tax base to Johnston County. The two towns are simply trying to determine if a couple of tracts could support industry. But the towns are asking their taxpayers to bear the costs that private landholders normally bear for soil and water tests and the like. Granted, the money is not a lot. But $35,000 would put another police officer on the street or another firefighter at the station. For that reason, taxpayers need to know who's benefitting from tax dollars that could be put to other public use.