Technology has made the work of the Indiana General Assembly more accessible than ever, with streaming video of House and Senate proceedings and many major committee hearings. But this week, when the primary business of the state is determined, the door is shut tight and the public left hanging.

Leaving final budget negotiations to key lawmakers might be the time-honored and efficient way to go. But it’s still an unsettling way to do the people’s business. Compromises forged in the process too often favor the political well-being of those involved, not Hoosiers at large.

If this session follows the model of previous years, there will be no information about a budget agreement until the final hours before the gavel falls late Wednesday. The massive House Bill 1001 will be distributed with little time for study by rank-and-file legislators, who will largely depend on their caucus’s leadership to decide whether to support the spending plan.

The real work on a budget, as well as on the insolvent Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, is happening behind closed doors, where deals and promises are exchanged in pursuit of agreement. Transparency? There is none.

Lawmakers would argue that their budget work must be done in private; that nothing would be accomplished under the bright light of public scrutiny. The reality is that they would prefer voters not observe the horse-trading and deal-making because some of it has to do as much with their political survival as with their constituents’ interests, probably more so. How would it appear if a building project in one district is exchanged for a promise of no election challenge in another?

One result of the last-minute crush, unfortunately, is legislation with unintended consequences. Much of it could be avoided by an open airing of the proposals on the table. Citizen-legislators, whatever skills and knowledge they bring to the table, still are no match for the eyes and ears of the public when it comes to weighing a bill’s provisions.

The cure would be strict adherence to schedules. Why can’t legislative leaders exert more discipline over proceedings? When they declare that no gambling and alcohol bills will be entertained in the session, that should be the case. Legislation most likely to reach a stalemate should be debated sooner and dispensed with if no agreement is possible.

Democratic and Republican leadership will inevitably work out a budget deal by Wednesday night, forged from the very different House and Senate versions. Hoosiers remain in the dark until they are finished, and the public is the worse off for that fact.