PA legislative expenses: Many details of expenses blocked from taxpayers goerie.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from goerie.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
See the Pa. lawmakers who spent the most on food, lodging, mileage and more
Updated May 14, 2021;
Posted May 14, 2021
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Story by Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA, and Brad Bumsted, Sam Janesch and Mike Wereschagin of The Caucus
HARRISBURG The Pennsylvania legislature spent $203 million from 2017 through 2020 just to feed, house, transport, and provide rental offices and other perks for lawmakers and their staffs. About one in 10 of those dollars $20 million in all over the four years went into lawmakers’ pockets in the form of reimbursements for meals, mileage subsidies, per diems, and other expenses.
Spending records legally belong to the people who ultimately foot the bill: the taxpayers. But in practice, citizens who want to see what lawmakers are buying with their money face an array of barriers, delays, and even pushback from lawyers hired by the General Assembly with yet more taxpayer money, the news organizations found.
Taxpayers foot huge bill to run Pa.’s full-time legislature, but are blocked from many details
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About $20 million went into Pennsylvania lawmakers’ pockets over four years in the form of reimbursements for meals, mileage subsidies, per diems, and other expenses.
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Story by Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA and Mike Wereschagin, Brad Bumsted, and Sam Janesch of The Caucus
HARRISBURG The Pennsylvania legislature got to work at 1 p.m. on March 18, 2019.
Three and a half hours later on that Monday afternoon, lawmakers had adjourned.
They passed eight bills, four of which eventually became law and none of which was controversial or particularly groundbreaking. One established a promotional board for distilled spirits. Two dealt with agricultural conservation easements.
They include nine first-place awards and a specialty award, the Lenfest Institute Diverse Journalist Award.
LNP|LancasterOnline competes in Division 1, the highest circulation-class category in the state. Other Division 1 media outlets include The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Morning Call in Allentown and Pennlive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg. The Caucus, which suspended print publication during the pandemic, competes in Division 7, which is for niche publications across all circulations.
The Keystone Media Awards âreinforce excellence by individuals in the news media profession, by recognizing journalism that consistently provides relevance, integrity, and initiative in serving readers and audiences, and faithfully fulfills its First Amendment rights/responsibilities. Further, the Keystone Media Awards stimulate journalists to improve their craft and ultimately improve their community,â according to the associationâs website.
This movement for change, a rare American cause around which many on the left and right unite, does not play out on paper, but in real human lives - the hearts, minds and captive bodies of defendants, and the prospects for their families and communities, which both crime and misguided justice policies harm. In a country governed by the rule of law and founded on the yet-unrealized promise of equal justice, it is not something we can afford to botch.
Take Carl Knight, who shares his story in an exclusive interview published by the Erie Times-News. This 49-year-old Erie man made headlines two decades ago when a high-profile federal prosecutor and an FBI task force identified him as the kingpin of a drug-dealing ring that smuggled into the region 458 pounds of crack cocaine worth $20.8 million. Other white drug kingpins were prosecuted in Erie for powder cocaine and marijuana, but none except Knight, and later, another Black defendant in a different crack cocaine case, drew mandatory l