Common Cause > Pennsylvania > Press Center > Clean Government Issues

ISSUE PRIORITIES
 

Common Cause/PA works for open, honest, effective, accountable and responsive government.  The State Governing Board, based upon advice from members through the biennial membership issues poll, and the recommendations of issue Project Teams, has identified the following as priority issues..

I.  Clean Elections

Elections are the principal method by which citizens hold public officials accountable for their actions.  CC/PA believes that elections must be both fair and competitive, and that reforms needed to achieve this goal include the following:

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM -- In an effort to protect the integrity and competitiveness of elections, over two-thirds of the states in our nation now restrict the amount of money, and in some cases the timing of donations, that individuals and organizations may give to political candidates. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania is not one of these states. In Pennsylvania, we need to break the bond between affluent special interest groups (and individuals) and powerful elected officials who control the governing process, and thus public policy. We need to bring the system by which Pennsylvania's elections are funded into the 21st century. Basic elements of needed campaign reform legislation include:

• Limiting the size of contributions that can be given to candidates, PACs, and political parties;
• Restricting the total amount of contributions candidates may accept from PACs and Parties;
• Restricting the time period during which contributions can be solicited or given;
• Prohibiting business partnerships from making political contributions from company accounts;
• Enacting safeguards to stop circumvention of restrictions (e.g. anti-bundling provisions);
• Limiting the amount of money candidates may spend on statewide races (Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Treasurer, and Appellate Court Judges). Enactment of  candidate spending limits, may also require some form of public financing to encourage candidates' voluntary compliance, and to comply with current court rulings.

OPEN AND COMPETITIVE ELECTIONS -- Open and competitive elections are critical to government accountability and effectiveness. Participation in the electoral process by both candidates and voters is critical to full participation.  Yet, Pennsylvania has outdated voting systems and one of the most restrictive systems for ballot access by candidates. Voters find it difficult to register and have their votes counted. Minor party candidates have difficulty getting on the ballot, because minor party candidates now must secure many more signatures than candidates from the two major parties. Needed reforms in this area include:

• Making the number of petition signatures required for minor party candidates comparable to those  major party candidates;
• Examining proposals for "open primaries" that would permit all registered voters to vote in  primary elections;
  
• Continuing to promote and defend "motor-voter" and other methods for maximizing voter registration opportunities, including election day registration and a statewide registry of voters; and
  
• Modernizing and upgrading present voting technology, including: expanding voting timeframes, and the location and accessibility of polling sites; statewide uniform ballot standards that guarantee understandable and easy to read ballots; providing state-of-the-art voting machines, and considering new technologies such as phone and Internet voting; and updating ballot counting and recount procedures.

DISCLOSURE OF CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS -- The 1978 Campaign Finance Reporting Law requires political candidates to disclose their financial backers so that voters can gain insights into candidates' ideological foundations and where their allegiances may lie. Unfortunately, this disclosure system is plagued by inadequate compliance and lack of enforcement. Better disclosure and access to financial contribution and spending information would be advanced by the following reforms:

• Computerizing the State Election Bureau reports and posting candidates' disclosure reports on the Internet in a fully searchable data-base; and
• Staffing the Election Bureau sufficiently to enforce the current law.

II. Lobbyist Disclosure

For year's, Pennsylvania was ridiculed for having the weakest lobbyist disclosure law in the nation. Responding to a CC/PA led effort, the General Assembly finally passed a meaningful lobbyist disclosure law in 1998 that mirrored those of many other states.  Unfortunately, the PA Supreme Court struck down the law in 2002. CC/PA currently is working to re-pass a lobbyist disclosure law that will comply with the Court's ruling.  A responsible new law will require all lobbyists and principals to register with the State Ethics Commission; require quarterly disclosure of the value of all resources that principals commit to their lobbying related activities (including support staff and efforts to influence the public to lobby); and disclosure of all gifts, meals and travel provided to public officials by a lobbyist or principal.  It also would ban a variety of practices that would inappropriately impact on the development of public policy and lobbyist-public official relationship.

III. Open Government

OPEN RECORDS -- Pennsylvania's Open Records law is archaic and does not adequately protect a citizen's right to access to public records and documents. Current law does not cover a wide range of government documents, and fails to account for modern record-keeping methods (e.g. computers and other electronic data systems). Reforms needed at both the state and local levels include:

• Updating the law to confirm that all documents generated or maintained by state and local governments are considered public records, unless the governmental body can sustain the burden of proving a record should be exempt.  Only specific, statutorily identified, types of documents that have bona-fide privacy or legal justifications for exemption should be permitted to be in non-disclosable classifications;
• Insuring that documents will be produced in a timely manner, and that a simple, effective, and low-cost appeal procedure exists when access is denied;
• Providing for strict penalties for public officials who attempt to improperly or unreasonably deny the public access to records; and
• Providing that copies of documents be made available in the most convenient format available at an agency -- and at reasonable rates, based on prevailing rates in the local commercial copying market.

OPEN MEETINGS/SUNSHINE LAW -- Access to government, and citizen participation, are important pillars of democracy.  Thus CC/PA has worked to secure passage of, and regular upgrades to, the state Sunshine-or Open Meetings-law. The current law gives citizens the right to attend, and speak at, most governmental meetings where official decisions are made, or where deliberations leading to decisions are conducted.  To better serve the public, the Sunshine law should be upgraded to provide for:

• Better enforcement mechanisms;
• Substantially increased fines for violations;
• Banning the use of public funds to pay fines or legal costs of officials' found guilty of  Sunshine Law violations;
• Making local government solicitors liable for the Sunshine law advice they give to   local government officials; and
• Mandating inclusion of state budget deliberations under the law.

IV. Legislative Reform

LEGISLATION GENERALLY--The nature of the legislative process in Pennsylvania frequently dictates the quality of the product. Even though Pennsylvania's constitution mandates a careful deliberative process for developing and passing laws, in recent years legislative leaders often have failed to follow this process. The required committee reviews of legislation have been ignored, and leaders have failed to provide sufficient time for lawmakers to read and understand bills and amendments before voting on them. There has been little opportunity for members to offer amendments to key bills. Reforms must begin with the following:

• Insuring legislative leadership comply with clear constitutional standards for passing laws;
• "Democratizing" the operating rules of the General Assembly to insure that all members, not just leadership, have fair opportunities to participate in drafting, reviewing, considering, and amending bills;
• Imposing term limits on leadership positions, including committee chairs;
• Bringing compensation packages of legislators into compliance with the constitution; and,
•  Considering constitutional revisions, such as
  *   Shortening the length of the legislative session, so that all legislative actions and gubernatorial vetoes will be finalized several weeks before a general election and
  *   Reducing the size of the legislature.

BUDGET REFORM -- In addition to generally reforming the way bills are developed and passed into law in Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth's budgeting process must receive particular attention to make it more effective and accountable. Reforms directed at achieving this goal include the following:

• Making the entire budget process subject to the state Sunshine law;    

• Establishing an independent review authority to verify revenue projections;

• Mandating specific dates for accomplishing various aspects of budget enactment;

• Establishing penalties for not meeting deadlines;

• Providing for carry-over of the prior year's budget if a new budget is not enacted by June 30, combined with a freeze on all of the Legislature's and Governor's Office funds until the new budget is passed; and

• Establishing a minimum period of time (not less than 48 hours) between submission of a "final" budget bill to lawmakers and their vote on it, so that legislators, and the public, can review its contents, determine its impact, and correct errors.

WAMS (WALKING AROUND MONEY) OR LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVE GRANTS -- These are surreptitious programs by which legislative leaders, or the Governor, "buy" votes of rank-and-file lawmakers by using taxpayers' money to fund the pet projects of individual legislators. Because of the secrecy surrounding this process, the lack of bona-fide evaluation of projects' relative merit or need in the selection process, and the absence of adequate accounting of these funds, WAMs and their progeny should be permanently abolished. WAMs, reconfigured in the CRAP program (Community Revitalization Assistance Program), are unacceptable, unaccountable forms of spending taxpayers' money.

REAPPORTIONMENT -- At each decennial reapportionment, CC/PA has worked aggressively to insure that the legislature and the Legislative Reapportionment Commission strictly comply with all constitutional standards for redistricting, including designing districts that:

• Have very small population deviations (in the range of 1% difference between the largest and smallest districts);
• Are compact and contiguous; and,
• Retain the integrity of existing geo-political boundaries.

Political gerrymandering, by which districts are designed to protect incumbents, eliminate strong challengers, and reduce the competition in elections that is so vital to successful representative government, must be exposed and prohibited.  CC/PA also encourages redistricting to be sensitive to existing communities of interest (per federal civil rights acts). Litigation is the key tool in the arsenal for protecting citizens' rights to fair reapportionment. Additionally, CC/PA backs legislation that would give the Reapportionment Commission authority of over PA's congressional redistricting, and require its processes to be strictly non-political and closely adhere to constitutional standards. 

INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM -- A majority of other states empowers their citizens with the tools of Initiative and/or Referendum (I&R). Pennsylvania's citizens do not have these powers. The Initiative process would allow citizens to develop laws and constitutional amendments, and to have them placed on the ballot for all voters of the state to determine whether they should be enacted. Through a petition process similar to that of the Initiative, Referendum allows voters to veto laws, or sections of laws, passed by the legislature. CC/PA supports empowering Pennsylvanians with I&R, because I&R make governments more vital, accountable and responsive, and allows governments keep pace with society's needs and aspirations.

IV. Judicial Selection

Pennsylvania's current system for electing judges has resulted in voters being asked to chose from a group of candidates about which they have little or no information, and virtually no way of obtaining needed information.  Judicial candidates receive the vast bulk of their campaign financing from lawyers, PACs organized by the legal profession, and entities that may have issues pending before the very judges receiving the campaign contributions. These circumstance lead to perceived and real conflicts-of-interest, seriously damaging the integrity of our judicial system. Reform is needed in the following areas:

• Amending the Election Code to restrict individual and PAC contributions to judicial candidates, limit campaign expenditures by the candidates, and provide partial public financing for judicial campaigns, would reduce the possibility of conflicts-of-interest;
• Amending the state constitution to provide for merit selection of all appellate court judges and justices -- with a local optional for merit selection for Common Pleas judges -- would encourage those with excellent judicial skills and temperament, instead of just those with excellent political skills, to seek judicial office. This would improve the caliber of Judges, and produce a better balanced judiciary with regard to minorities, gender, and social background.  

VI. Ethics 

CC/PA is very proud of the role it has played in helping to pass and strengthen the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act.  At the time of its passage, it was one of the toughest anti-corruption statutes in the United States.  Currently CC/PA is monitoring the enforcement of this law, which prohibits financial conflicts-of-interest by public officials.  Occasionally, CC/PA becomes involved in enforcement actions and litigation that could have a broad impact on the interpretation and enforcement of the law.  CC/PA also is helping local citizens' groups develop strict supplemental "Ethics Ordinances" for their local governments.  CC/PA backs efforts to require public officials to identify not only the source of outside income, but also the amount, and where appropriate, the services provided for payment.  CC/PA also played a key role in helping to achieve passage of a "Whistleblower" law to protect public employees who report illegal activities.

VII. Sunset 

The Sunset statute was one of the most valuable good government tools designed by the PA General Assembly.  Under the Sunset process, most state government agencies were subject to regular reviews to evaluate their effectiveness and efficiency, to determine whether the functions for which they were created continue be necessary, whether their functions duplicate another agency's, and whether there are better ways to deliver the same services.  Under this process, agencies had to be renewed by statute at the end of their Sunset cycle, or they automatically will cease to exist.  While few agencies had been allowed to expire, many agencies saw significant changes in their authorizing legislation -- changes that made them more effective and more efficient.  In 1991, the General Assembly failed to renew the state Sunset Law. Therefore, there is no longer any requirement to evaluate state agencies.  CC/PA is working to have the Sunset Law reinstated. 

VIII. Local Government Reform/Initiatives

On the local government level, CC/PA is studying ways to reduce inefficiencies, redundancies, and waste that are caused by overlapping or multiple layers of local government.
 
One of the newest ideas that CC/PA is beginning to develop is "Empowerment Civics".  This initiative would help citizens develop and implement government integrity ordinances for their local governments, by providing model ordinances and organizational support for citizens' efforts. In addition, the Citizen Engagement Project would compliment these efforts by developing ways in which citizens organize and play more active roles in their communities and local governments.

 IX. Other Issues/Initiatives

Additional issues in which CC/PA has become involved include:

• Banning SLAPP suits;
• Insurance reform, Consumer Advocate, and other consumer related issues;
• Tax reforms;
• "Bottle bills";
• Opposing Gambling expansion due to the negative fiscal, operational, and infrastructure impacts it likely would have on state and local governments;
• Opposing "takings" legislation due to the dramatic negative impact it would have on government's ability to protect the health and welfare of all citizens, and the potentially crushing fiscal burden it would impose on taxpayers;
• Exploring the problems of accountability and corruption in authorities and commissions, especially those covering multiple political jurisdictions.