Shapiro Gift Ban

Shapiro Gift Ban - Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan news service created by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and WITF Public Media. Subscribe to our free newsletter. HARRISBURG. The Shapiro administration said the governor did not violate his gift ban when he and his senior staff traveled to Arizona for the Super Bowl, which was funded by a nonprofit organization and received millions of dollars.

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Shapiro Gift Ban

Under a policy introduced in January, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and executive branch officials are barred from accepting tickets for entertainment events such as football games. The ban states that those employees cannot accept such a gift from any "person or entity" that "has a financial relationship with the Commonwealth."

The Pennsylvania team, a public-private partnership aimed at improving the state's "competitiveness and economic prosperity," paid for Shapiro and his staff's air travel, lodging and game tickets. The nonprofit received about $1.7 million from the Wolf administration in the 2021-22 fiscal year, according to its most recent federal tax filing, mostly to attract new businesses to the state.

In January, the Shapiro administration awarded him a new $100,000 contract to conduct research on how to introduce hydrogen technology into Pennsylvania's power system. The state has awarded the group more than $17.2 million in contracts since 2007, according to a database maintained by the state treasury.

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Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for Shapiro, told Spotlight PA that the tickets do not violate the gift ban because the organization has "a century-long history of cooperation with the public" and is "absolutely not comparable to a private organization." He did not answer questions about the organization's financial relations with the state.

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Abby Smith, president and CEO of Team Pennsylvania, said her organization is not subject to the gift ban because she does not recommend the policy. He stressed that his organization's government contracts are not something that should be prohibited by gifts. "[There] the terms of the grant require a contractual agreement, which is different from the outgoing financial relationship," Smith said.

We are interested in being a neutral broker that never promotes politics or an agenda." As one of his first acts as governor, Shapiro signed an executive order outlining the types of gifts he and his staff could not accept, and from whom. The order does not specify the consequences of violating the policy, nor who should monitor employees and officials for potential violations.

Bonder did not respond to a question about whether the cost of the trip would be disclosed in Shapiro's annual report of financial interests. Under the Public Ethics Act, public officials are required to report gifts of more than $250, which can result in criminal and civil penalties.

Investigative Journalism For Pennsylvania

Claire Finkelstein Professor of Government Ethics at Johnston Law School. Carey, of the University of Pennsylvania, said the gift ban provides broad coverage for those under its jurisdiction, including "those who do business with or expect to do business with the state." business. "If the government of Pennsylvania is paying for their tuition, I think that's a financial relationship," Finkelstein said.

Whatever the practice at that organization is, it does not change the fact that this is indeed a gift to the governor and none of the exceptions to the gift ban apply to him." Finkelstein added that he doesn't see the governor's participation in the Super Bowl as a problem, but raised questions about how the trip should be paid for.

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He said if Shapiro had been in a public capacity, the trip would have had to be paid for with public funds. (Smith said his group sent Shapiro to the Super Bowl because, as the state's "CEO," he would raise Pennsylvania's profile if he was seen there.) This isn't the first time a Pennsylvania group has funded an expensive governor's trip.

The group has been organizing and funding such trips since 1997, when former Republican Gov. Tom Ridge created a group of top business leaders amid Ridge's efforts to overhaul and overturn sweeping state ordinances. In 2012, the Pennsylvania team paid for Republican Gov. Tom Corbett and a small staff to travel to Lyon and Paris, France, and then to Stuttgart and Dusseldorf, Germany, to meet with business leaders.

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The group has also funded governors' trips to "major golf tournaments" to meet with leaders, Smith said in an email. According to the 2021–2022 annual report, the Pennsylvania team had "financial resources" of $9.9 million. In recent years, it has spent money on economic research, public relations and travel, including a trip to the Netherlands by an expert on agricultural policy.

Federal tax law does not require Team Pennsylvania, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, to disclose its sponsors, and Smith did not respond to specific questions about who contributes to the organization. The latest annual report lists numerous "investors" of companies whose top executives also sit on the board of directors of the Pennsylvania team.

The current co-chair of the organization, along with Shapiro, is a lobbyist for the Harrisburg law firm McNees Wallace & Nurick, which provides legal services to the governor's office, state agencies and commissions. The board also includes executives from Shell, Consol Energy, First Energy, St. Luke's University Health Network, Carnegie Mellon University and the International Brotherhood of Electricians.

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Any member of the public can be appointed to the board, Smith said, but the organization's bylaws require candidates to hold senior positions in relevant organizations — which board members say affects the issues it focuses on. The nonprofit supports goals such as decarbonizing the state's energy generation and strengthening the manufacturing industry, the annual report said.

Investigative Journalism For Pennsylvania

Sometimes these goals directly benefit the companies on the board of directors. In September 2022, the group sponsored a study in which the state of Pennsylvania supported increasing hydrogen production and managing CO2 emissions. Soon after, the legislature passed and former Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf signed a $2 billion package of tax breaks, half of which was for any company that built an industrial hydrogen fuel facility in Pennsylvania.

Lobbyists supporting the treaty often pointed to the Pennsylvania team's report. Then in November, the Pennsylvania team applied for federal incentives to attract such a facility on behalf of the state government. Shell, whose CEO sits on Team Pennsylvania's board of directors, is one of two companies that would build and operate the center if the federal government accepts Pennsylvania's proposal.

Team Pennsylvania's ability to accelerate economic growth through public-private partnerships will be used to support a hydrogen hub proposal that will keep Pennsylvania economically competitive for generations to come," Smith, CEO of Team Pennsylvania, said in a press release at the conference. time Smith downplayed the organization's role in setting policy in an interview with Spotlight PA.

He noted that the group would provide a forum for private meetings with public sector representatives to discuss policy, adding that business and government working together would benefit the state's economy. But environmentalists who have criticized the tax relief package have pointed to a disconnect between the Pennsylvania community, its supporters, and the policy guidelines.

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