Members of Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, are currently facing subpoenas over allegations that his department dodged records requests related to taxpayer-funded regional planning.
For over a decade, the good people of Pennsylvania have been funding the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone, a program to revitalize the city after much of its urban decline. industry It began to collapse in the late 1960s and early 1970s. About $500 million has been allocated to the Allentown NIZ since 2011, and state officials are now seeking more information about how that money was spent.
“It is difficult to determine the value of a program when the financial records are largely hidden and secret.”
First-term Republican state senator Jarrett Coleman began investigating the matter in March 2023 and twice formally requested financial records related to the Allentown NIZ from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, but Revenue Commissioner Pat Brown reportedly denied those requests.
By May 2023, Coleman had asked the Assembly Budget and Finance Committee for further assistance on the matter, and then Senate Resolution 110It asked the LBFC to conduct a “performance audit” of the Allentown NIZ, which the LBFC agreed to in December.
according to ReportsLBFC has officially attempted to access tax records related to the Allentown NIZ at least four times this year, on April 15, May 9, June 5 and June 6, but the tax department appears to have blocked each of those attempts.
As a result of the department’s apparent stonewalling, the Senate Intergovernmental Activities Committee, which Coleman chairs, voted Wednesday to subpoena Brown.
“Allentown NIZ’s sources of revenue, how it spends its funds and the effectiveness of its programs appear to be shrouded in mystery,” Coleman said in a statement. “It is difficult to determine the value of a program when financial records are largely hidden and secret.”
This is not the first time Senator Coleman and Secretary of State Brown have been at odds. Brown Brown served in the state senate seat currently held by Coleman for nearly two decades before being defeated by Coleman in the 2022 Republican primary. After his loss, Brown, a longtime Pennsylvania Republican, was appointed to Gov. Shapiro’s Cabinet, a Democrat.
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