This story first appeared in The Investigator, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA featuring the best investigative and accountability journalism from across Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here.
By Angela Couloumbis | Spotlight PA
Every year, government agencies in Pennsylvania award contracts — sometimes worth millions of dollars — without going through the traditional bidding process meant to ensure taxpayers get the best price for the work.
The companies that benefit from this arrangement, in turn, are required to report campaign contributions by owners and employees. This helps ensure the system isn’t pay-to-play.
The requirement is buried deep in Pennsylvania’s 270-page Election Code and might be one of the best-kept secrets in the Capitol. The annual reports produced by the Pennsylvania Department of State are not easily accessible or well-known by the public.
The code requires no-bid contractors to send the department a list by Feb. 15 of all political contributions over $1,000 that they know were made in the preceding year. It applies to donations by company officers, directors, partners, and employees, and members of their immediate families.
The agency then has 60 days to “publish” an itemized list of contributions and ensure it is a “matter of public record open to public inspection,” says the Election Code.
But the only way to get the list — if you know about it in the first place — is to contact the Pennsylvania Department of State, which Spotlight PA did to obtain the 2023 version. The agency does not make the list available on its website, which features an entire section for searching campaign contributions.
An agency spokesperson did not respond to a question about why it doesn’t place the information online.
The issue is likely a matter of resources. The agency’s Bureau of Campaign Finance & Lobbying Disclosure is understaffed despite the volume of work it’s responsible for.
Though political contributions to statewide candidates can be looked up on the Department of State’s website, the list of donations by no-bid contractors and their families is a quick and simplified way to glean important information about potential influence in government decision-making.
It’s one of the tougher accountability measures in Pennsylvania’s generally permissive campaign finance laws.
The commonwealth places no limits on the amount of money donors can give candidates for elected office. And candidates can spend those dollars on virtually anything they claim furthers their election, from clothing to gym memberships to sporting events to lavish trips.
It is possible to get some of the information contained on the list from the Department of State’s campaign finance website — but not all of it.
For starters, the website is clunky. A misspelled name can throw off a search and produce faulty results. The site also does not provide the finance reports of candidates for local offices. Those reports are available at the local level — and often only in hard copy.
The list identifies contributions from businesses’ employees and those workers’ family members, information that can connect the dots for the public and provide a more comprehensive picture of political giving.
In the list for 2023 provided to Spotlight PA, the law firm of Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel reported just under $81,000 in donations by 12 partners or their spouses. The firm has been awarded contracts (although not all no-bid) by multiple state agencies, including the governor’s Office of General Counsel.
Still, this is Pennsylvania, and the unpublished list of contributions is not a panacea.
It does not, for instance, require no-bid contractors to list the government agency with which they have no-bid contracts. Nor does it total the amount of contributions owners, directors, and employees of those companies made in a given year.
For that, the public still has to do the work.
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