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Pennsylvania State Senate
04/23/2024 11:02 PM
Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20130&cosponId=11824
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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: February 21, 2013 04:10 PM
From: Senator Patrick M. Browne
To: All Senate members
Subject: Electronic Filing of Campaign Finance Reports
 
In the near future, I intend to re-introduce legislation that was introduced as Senate Bill 1394 in the 2011-12 legislative session. This legislation would require that all candidates for office and political action committees (PACS) in Pennsylvania utilize the Department of State’s online filing system to electronically file campaign finance reports.

Paper filing of campaign finance reports is outdated, costly, and inefficient, requiring all filings to be electronically filed would greatly improve government transparency and accountability while at the same time reducing expenses for the state. According to the Department of State, a third of all campaign finance reports are already filed electronically. If the other two-thirds of candidates and PAC’s where to begin filing electronically the existing online system would be able to handle it with no additional cost.

Most importantly, this system will greatly hasten the process of disclosure to keep up with political and legislative developments in the state. Due to lack of funding, all reports that have not been filed electronically as of late 2010 have not be transferred from paper to the online database that is available to the public. Because of this, Commonwealth citizens and public watchdog groups are unable to efficiently gain access to these public documents. Instead, if a member of the public wants to see a recent campaign finance report, they must travel to Harrisburg; of they would have to pay for copies of the report to be sent by mail or email.

Currently, there are 32 states that require electronic filing. Pennsylvania must not be left behind in the era of increased public transparency online. We have the technology to give our citizens the transparent government they deserve while saving the tax payers money.

Cosponsors of Senate Bill 1394 included: Senators BAKER, RAFFERTY, WASHINGTON, ALLOWAY, FARNESE, ERICKSON, SMUCKER, FONTANA, COSTA, WOZNIAK, VANCE, MENSCH and PILEGGI.

Introduced as SB778