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Pennsylvania State Senate
04/25/2024 07:49 AM
Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20210&cosponId=34320
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: January 22, 2021 10:13 AM
From: Senator Patrick M. Browne
To: All Senate members
Subject: Requiring the Electronic Filing of Campaign Finance Reports
 
In the near future, I intend to reintroduce legislation that was introduced as Senate Bill 178 in the 2019-20 legislative session, which was amended in the Senate to include changes that were proposed by the Department of State. This legislation would require that all candidates for office and political action committees 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Paper filing of campaign finance reports is outdated, costly, and inefficient.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 political action committees were to file 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. Due to lack of funding, all reports that have not been filed electronically are not immediately 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 would have to either travel to Harrisburg; or, pay for copies of the report to be sent by mail or email.

Currently, at least 32 states 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 taxpayers money.

Senate Bill 178 was passed by the Senate 48-0.  Cosponsors of Senate Bill 178 included Senators Gordner, Mensch, Yaw, Baker, Scavello, Aument, DiSanto, Costa, Hughes, Boscola, Fontana, Santarsiero, Brewster, Haywood, Schwank, Kearney, Tartaglione and J. Ward. 
 


Introduced as SB140