The Pennsylvania Senate has unanimously passed a bill that would make numerous changes to the state’s open records law, including requiring extensive information from state-related universities to be made public.
Erik Arneson, Chief of Staff with senate majority leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Chester), says that the bill would require Penn State and the other state-related universities to provide “extensive budget and revenue information” to the public.
This would take the form of an online, searchable database that must be created by July 2015 if the bill passes the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and is signed into law by the governor. A tentative timeline of the rest of the bill’s legislative process is not available.
This database would include itemized lists of general categories of both expenses and revenues. For example, Arneson says it wouldn’t include a listing for a box of paperclips, but would include a category for something like office supplies. This database would detail money obtained through the state as well as money raised from other sources, like tuition.
“One of the primary goals with expanding the application of this law was to get much more detail about how these universities spend their money,” Arneson says.
Scott Sikorski of the office of Sen. Jake Corman (R-Centre) says the 200 greatest salaries at the university would also be made public. Administrators and other non-faculty members would have their exact yearly salary reported, while faculty members would be reported in categories broken down by salary ranges.
Arneson says that all contracts made by the university valued at more than $5,000 would also be made public, “which is the vast bulk of contracts.”
This includes any contract the university makes to pay for goods or services, ranging from construction to financial consultation. The parties involved in the contract, its start and end date and a description of the goods or services provided would all be reported.
If Penn State were to be hired as a contractor by an outside agency, this would not be included in the list of contracts – though this money would appear as revenue in the budget database. The contract list is meant to monitor the goods and services these universities purchase, and not the ones they may sell, Arneson says.
Non-personal data on faculty and students would also be made public, such as the number of graduate and undergraduate students and the number of different available courses.
“We were pleased to work with the state Senate on this bill, and we see it as a major expansion of the information we provide to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth,” Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers says. “We believe this is an appropriate manner in which to be transparent.”
Another major proposal in the bill is that only Pennsylvanian residents could petition state and local agencies for information. Arneson says this was originally intended to be in the first law written back in 2008, but they weren’t sure the provision would hold up in court.
Since then, the United States Supreme Court decided a case form Virginia, determining that only residents of Virginia could petition their state or local agencies for documents or information.
“The logic is that the goal of the Right-to-Know law is to give Pennsylvania residents the ability to review the actions of their government,” Arneson says. “And the cost of complying with the Right-to-Know law is paid for by the taxpayers in Pennsylvania.”
Sikorski says this limitation also came about as a result of requests from various municipal governments and other small agencies, who were “inundated” with requests from out of state.
Former Penn State Board of Trustees candidate Ryan Bagwell says he has concerns about this provision, though he adds the bill “does a lot of good things by making a lot of information more directly accessible.”
Bagwell began the Penn State Sunshine Fund, which is involved with trying to obtain documents and other information surrounding the Freeh report and general handling of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. As a non-Pennsylvanian resident, he fears what impact this could have on his efforts to obtain this information.
“This would limit out-of-state Penn State students and out-of-state media outlets from requesting information,” Bagwell says. “It’s stripping millions of Americans of their right to request information about Pennsylvania.”
Arneson says that state-related universities are not subject to the Right-to-Know Law, and this restriction is intended for state agencies and municipal governments.
POPULAR STORIES:
Penn State Hockey: Gadowsky Big Ten Media Day Q&A
Citizen’s Police Academy Geared Toward Senior Issues Starts Soon
State College Field Hockey Squad Looks to Get to .500 — and Beyond
Rosh Hashanah Brings Time of Reflection for Jewish Community
