Pa. Senate to put expenses online

It will soon be much easier to find out how much state senators collect in per diems for meals and lodging or charge taxpayers for office expenses.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, RCentre, announced Wednesday he is making good on a priority he outlined when he was sworn into his current post in January.

“Pennsylvanians deserve to know how their tax dollars are spent, so opening the Senate’s books to the public eye is absolutely the right thing to do,” Mr. Corman said in a statement. “The online transparency tool that is in development now will help fulfill the promise of state government that is more open and accountable to the people it serves.”

The expenses for each senator as well as the chamber’s institutional offices will be available including everything from office leases, per diems, reimbursements for meals and lodging, supplies, mileage, office maintenance and more. The information will be available on a webpage that will be updated monthly.

Previously, much of that information had to be sought through a Right to Know Law request, although some lawmakers do provide the information on their webpages. However, in some cases, as Spotlight PA reported in May, the data wasn’t always current.

In the state House, the spokesman for House Speaker Bryan Cutler, RLancaster, said the chamber is looking at ways to improve transparency. Mike Straub, a spokesman for Mr. Cutler, said the speaker introduced a rule change last year to limit the redactions in records requested through the Right to Know Law.

“We’ll take a look at what the Senate’s doing,” Mr. Straub said. “It’s certainly something our members are already discussing and likely to address in the fall.”