DV Journal

A bill to do away with private funds going to “administer” elections passed the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania legislature. But it is unclear whether Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf will sign it.

Todd Shepherd, former Delaware Valley Journal editor who is now an investigative reporter at Broad and Liberty, testified before a state Senate committee on April 5 about outside money that arguably impacted the 2020 election. The funds came from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), a nonprofit organization funded through a foundation of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscila Chan– hence the name “Zuckerbucks.”

The couple gave $419 million to two nonprofits that, in turn, gave funds to nearly 2,500 local election departments across the country in the 2020 election.

CTCL donated to mostly Democrat majority counties for get-out-the-vote efforts, with Pennsylvania receiving more than $20 million. And another group, the Center for Secure and Modern Elections, was also involved in the efforts, Shepherd said.

“The handful of blue counties contacted in July and August of that year were given special assistance by outside consultants — some of them paid political consultants with clear partisan interests,” said Shepherd.

“Those consultants worked to make sure the county would get the maximum grant award. I found no similar emails for grant maximization with any of Pennsylvania’s red counties.”

Shepherd continued, “For example, this is the first email I could find in which Delaware County Councilwoman Christine Reuther was originally introduced to someone about the CTCL grants.

“The email participants were as I mentioned Councilwoman Reuther, consultant Marc Solomon, Jennifer Walls-Lavelle who was a staffer for Gov. Wolf, Gwen Camp — the author of the email and a paid consultant for ‘The Voter Project’ — and finally, Kevin Mack, a DC-based consultant.”

And it is not just Pennsylvania. The Capitol Research Center, a center-right think tank, found a similar trend nationwide. CTCL “consistently gave bigger grants and more money per capita to counties that voted for Biden,” its investigation found. For example, the average per capita grant in Georgia for areas that leaned Republican was $1.41 per person. In pro-Biden districts, the donations reached an average of $5.33.

In his testimony regarding “Zuckerbucks” in Pennsylvania,  Shepard detailed how Democratic operatives were deeply involved in the election activities funded by these outside groups.

Another Reuther email exchange that Shepherd highlighted for the committee was between Reuther and Delaware County Solicitor William “Bill” Martin. Martin was sending her information on who comprised and funded the CTCL.

“Ms. Reuther responded, ‘Not at all surprising. I am seeking funds to fairly and safely administer the election so everyone legally registered to vote can do so and have their votes count. If a left-leaning public charity wants to further my objective, I am good with it. I will deal with the blowback.’”

However, Shepherd’s investigation found only targeted, Democratic majority counties were given early notice that the grants were available.

Shepherd also told the committee, “Last, in terms of exhibits, we have the mid-August email from then-Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar to a county commissioner in Bucks County, establishing communication about the CTCL grants.

“Bucks is a very purple-ish county, as you all know, but still I feel this selective invitation to an election grant by the state’s top election official needs answers. Why is she making the introductions instead of the CTCL?

“And just to drive home the question: With just two and a half months to go before the election, why is the secretary of state inviting some counties to get this grant money but not others? How was she deciding who to reach out to? Was she told by the CTCL and CSME who the preferred counties were? Or did she decide herself? And if she did decide by herself, what information or concerns guided those decisions?”

Sen. Bob Mensch (R-Bucks/Berks/Montgomery) said, “We must eliminate the heavy hand of massive private funding into our commonwealth’s and our nation’s elections, with no exceptions.  The effect of Mark Zuckerberg’s, and others, spending to influence their desired outcome is uncalculatable.  No one person, or small group of extremely rich people should determine the outcome of an election—that is the responsibility of all our citizens.”

“It is very likely Governor Wolf will veto the bill,” Mensch added.

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg recently announced he will no longer give money to outside groups for election administration.

When asked whether Wolf would sign or veto the bill, the governor’s spokeswoman Elizabeth Remeter did not give a direct answer, instead blaming the legislature for failing to give the counties adequate funding for elections.

“First, it’s important to point out that counties have asked for additional funding from the General Assembly, so it is hypocritical to both ignore the asks from counties while simultaneously proposing to end opportunities for counties to seek funding to ensure safe elections,” said Remeter.

“The governor has long called for improvements to our election process that safely expands access to the ballot. He also continues to push back on anyone who tries to spread misinformation and make baseless accusations that our elections are anything short of free, fair, and secure,” she said.

“Instead of continuing to pursue conspiracy theories and new ways to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters, Senate Republicans should refocus their efforts on bipartisan ways we can continue to fund elections.”

Remeter added, “Instead of indulging discredited conspiracy theories and making it more difficult for the counties to obtain resources they need to administer elections, we should have a real conversation about properly funding elections and finally make commonsense election improvements to our election code like allowing pre-canvassing of ballots, which is supported by the state county commissioners association and all 67 counties.”

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Just one day after the GOP-controlled state legislature failed to stop Gov. Tom Wolf from pushing Pennsylvania into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a state court has stopped the regulation from taking effect, “pending further order of the court.”

Republicans were delighted.  

“The court’s action is a welcome step in the right direction,” said Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Bradford). “It’s prudent to press pause on RGGI, given the administration’s gross underestimations of how much it will inflate electricity costs for all Pennsylvanians. We need to pursue climate solutions that encourage collaboration with our energy sector, not regressive and unconstitutional taxes meant to destroy it and leave us reliant on foreign oil and gas for decades to come. I look forward to further court action on this matter and continuing our fight to protect Pennsylvania’s economic prosperity.

Before the court’s ruling, Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland) said it was absurd for Pennsylvania to increase taxes on people and the commonwealth’s energy resources when inflation and gas prices are skyrocketing. 

“We are trying to help Pennsylvanians manage through the economic fallout from COVID-19, not to mention the effects of the current state of affairs globally,” said Ward. “Instead, Pennsylvania Democrats voted to increase Pennsylvanians electric bills by 30 percent, eliminate 22,000 homegrown jobs and increase the cost of everyday products with no significant environmental benefit.”

Rep. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Harleysville) said “radical senators” ignored warnings last week from the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) that RGGI would increase consumer electricity costs by $800 million.

“If the courts do not stop the RGGI tax, it will become the most regressive tax in Pennsylvania history,” said Pennycuick. “This is the last thing that families and seniors need who are already struggling to make ends meet with historic inflation, including household energy bills and skyrocketing gasoline prices.”

RGGI is a regional carbon cap-and-trade program among mostly-blue northeastern states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia.

Wolf has been fighting to force Pennsylvania into the compact since 2019 when he issued an executive order directing the state’s entrance into it.

The Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a hearing last week on the IFO’s warnings about RGGI’s economic harm. Still, Democrats, including Sen. Carolyn Comitta (D-Chester), support RGGI.

“In Pennsylvania, it’s been a years’-long process with more review, comment, and study than any other initiative in memory,” said Comitta. “RGGI has more than a long history of economic success.”

Since 2008, RGGI states cut power sector emissions in half, reduced electricity prices, and outpaced the nation in economic growth, all while creating $4 billion in net economic gains and nearly 50,000 job-years of employment, Comitta asserted.

Committa said RGGI prices “account for a small portion–a sliver, really–of what makes up an electricity bill.”

“While electricity rates are already rising across the country, during the first 10 years that RGGI was in place, rates dropped nearly 6 percent in RGGI states, and in those states, RGGI energy-efficiency investments of $2.8 billion have produced nearly $13.5 billion in consumer energy savings” or a return of nearly $4.80 for every dollar invested.

“Do my colleagues who oppose RGGI have a plan, a new plan to address climate change, rising energy costs, the decline of coal-fired power plants, and impact to their workers and communities? I am not aware of one,” she said.

Comitta also cited a letter from businesses in Pennsylvania that support RGGI, including Nestle, Mars Incorporated, and British Petroleum (BP).

Sen, Katie Muth (D-Montgomery), another committee member, backs RGGI. Muth has long argued that reducing emissions will improve public health.

“Efforts to block Pennsylvania from joining RGGI only put our environment, health, and economic security at risk,” she wrote in a 2020 Op-ed.

But labor and business leaders say jobs are on the line.

Kris Anderson, of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Third District, told the committee there was a “dramatic reduction” in jobs in the electric generation sector in neighboring states that enrolled in RGGI.

“We can be assured that Pennsylvania would suffer a similar fate,” said Anderson. “The Cheswick Power Plant has announced it will cease operations by the end of this month (and) with that announcement, 50 people will lose their job, Forty-two of those workers are IBEW members.”

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is also concerned.

“Small businesses have been disproportionately impacted by the effects of COVID-19, and many are still struggling,” said Melissa Morgan, assistant state director of NFIB. “Shutdown orders, a lack of workforce, supply chain disruptions, record-high inflation, and a recovering economy have devastated a sizable segment of Pennsylvania’s small businesses.”

“The incidence of price hikes on Main Street is clearly on the rise as owners pass on rising labor and operating costs,” and RGGI would accelerate that, she said.

“Employers continue to operate with minimal staff and higher labor and material costs, all while struggling to reopen to pre-pandemic levels,” said Morgan. “Should small businesses continue to struggle and close their doors in communities across the state, Main Streets will suffer, state and local tax bases will collapse, and more workers will lose their jobs.”

Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association (PMA) also testified against RGGI. Carl A. Marrara, vice president of government affairs, warned RGGI would cause industries to relocate.

Marrara said it is “not a stretch” to say supporting RGGI is supporting Russian and Middle Eastern global energy leadership and Chinese steel dumping. He called for a market-based approach.

Yaw supports the litigation from Senate Republicans to “protect Pennsylvania from economic ruin.”

“The Democrats’ delusional support for RGGI will cost 22,000 jobs and ruin real lives without ever making a dent in air quality,” said Yaw. “We cannot allow this administration to squander Pennsylvania’s legacy as an energy leader while simultaneously duping 13 million residents into paying for the state’s economic demise, all under the guise of lowered emissions.”

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Of all the school choice bills currently up for consideration in Pennsylvania, state Sen. Mike Regan’s proposed expansion of tax credit scholarships appears to be the one best positioned to become law.

The Republican representing parts of Cumberland and York Counties is the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 527, which would establish an “automatic escalator” each year so the supply of scholarships would keep up with increasing demand. Since the bill was approved by the Senate Education Committee in January, it is eligible for a vote in the full Senate.

That’s why now would be a good time for elected officials to revisit the personal stories of state residents who have previously testified about the benefits of both the Education Improvement Tax Credit Scholarship and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit, which enable families to cover the costs of private school tuition.

The experiences of Maria Elizabeth Leon, an immigrant from Mexico who is now a resident of Allegheny County, is particularly applicable to the scholarship programs, which are currently limited by arbitrary state-imposed caps. Leon testified before the Senate Education Committee in April 2021 where she made a powerful case for families like her own that sought out private, Christian schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When I testified, I told senators that before finding out about the scholarships I had been selling tamales to save money and was considering opening a Mexican restaurant to help save for my children’s schooling,” Leon said in an interview. “That’s how far I was willing to go since I did not know at the time that the state had a K-12 scholarship program.”

Since the inception of the tax credit scholarships in 2001, hundreds of thousands of low – to middle-income Pennsylvania students have received tuition assistance through the EITC and OSTC programs, according to government figures. Businesses and individuals can donate to more than 250 scholarship organizations statewide receiving a 75 percent credit on their income taxes for a one-year commitment or a 90  credit for a two-year commitment.

A joint poll from EdChoice, a national nonprofit school choice advocacy group, and The Commonwealth Foundation, a free-market think tank based in Harrisburg, found that 71 percent of Pennsylvania voters support both scholarship programs.

“None of what my children have achieved would be possible without the state’s tax credit scholarship program,” Leon said. “But sadly, there are many other students who are in need of scholarships and can’t get them. The program is capped. This is a shame because no kids should be left out.”

But a new report from The Commonwealth Foundation shows many are being left out because of rising demand. For the 2019-20 school year, the report found students submitted 137,000 scholarship applications, which was 34,000 more than the prior school year, and the highest on record. Unfortunately, a record number of K-12 student tax applications were also denied because of the existing caps – 75,651 to be precise. Put simply, 55 percent of K-12 applications were turned away. The problem doesn’t end here. In the 2019-20 school year, individuals and businesses donated a record $190 million for K-12 scholarships. But $116 million of business donations have been waitlisted because of the caps.

Fortunately, Regan’s bill would put an end to the backlog by automatically raising the caps for both programs by 25 percent annually so long as at least 90 percent of the credits were claimed in the prior year.

“Since we know there’s a demand for more scholarship funding, and we know how much the scholarships have already helped, why not expand and help more children have a bright future?” Leon asks. Three of her children received tax-credit scholarships to attend Cornerstone. But she would like to see all Pennsylvania residents who are in need of financial assistance benefit from scholarships for private schools. “My children are succeeding at Cornerstone where they have high hopes for the future.”

But the same may not be true for other students who have no alternative to public schools in absence of any scholarships. Regan drove this point home in a press release where he discussed the potential long-term ramifications of students missing out on scholarships.

“Some of these kids may never get the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty or an inevitable life of crime and prison because their taxpayer-funded public schools continue to fail to provide them the education and support they need to break the cycle,” Regan said in the release. “Ultimately, this is about lives. Changing and improving the lives of young people.”

An economic analysis of the “untapped potential” of tax credit scholarships found that by expanding both the EITC and OSTC programs Pennsylvania would generate billions of dollars by increasing the lifetime earnings of today’s students while reducing crime.

Regan anticipates that his bill could increase the scholarship programs by $100 million annually, which amounts to less than 1 percent of the $30 billion the state spends on education each year.

“We are talking about personal financial gain for these individuals who then do not need to seek public assistance or wind up in taxpayer-funded prisons,” Regan said in his release. “And the billions of dollars that we will experience in return more than covers the increase in available tax credits.”

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Before 2002, you did not need a Social Security number to apply for a driver’s license in Pennsylvania. Instead, to prove your identity, you could provide a federally-issued tax identification number along with other documents. That meant undocumented immigrants were able to take and pass the driving exam in order to apply for a driver’s license.

In 2009, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) canceled the driver’s licenses of tens of thousands of undocumented Pennsylvanians who had legally obtained their licenses using pre-2002 criteria. As anyone who lives beyond easy access to public transportation knows, driving is a necessity for much of day-to-day life: Taking children to school, shopping for groceries, going to work, or getting to medical appointments.

In addition to making those everyday activities of life much more difficult, not having valid identification creates fear and stress within immigrant communities, including those where various family members have different immigration statuses. Having valid identification means that if an undocumented immigrant is pulled over during a traffic stop, they will not automatically be put into jail and be thrust into the quagmire of deportation hearings. Having state-issued identification is also vital for many other family functions. People might need an ID to get their prescriptions, or enter a medical facility, or prove they can pick up their children from school.

A remedy for this situation is being proposed in the Pennsylvania legislature, HB-279. The bill would provide driver’s licenses for all. Opening up driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants is not only good for them but for all of us, for our safety and our economy. If implemented, it could expand the number of those who know the rules of the road, have car insurance, buy cars and gas for their cars, and have greater accessibility to more jobs. Undocumented immigrants are a vital part of our economy. In Philadelphia alone, approximately 50,000 undocumented workers pay more than $128 million in taxes annually.

As Jews, we have additional reasons based on our historical experiences and our religious tradition to be concerned about the welfare of immigrants. The Torah commands us to befriend and protect the stranger, no less than 36 times. It gives two reasons for this commandment. The first calls on our experiences and our compassion. “You shall not oppress the stranger, having yourself been strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9). The second reason the Torah gives is we were mistreated while strangers, so do not do to others what was done to you. To reinforce this, the Torah reminds us that God hears the cry of the oppressed. Not just our sojourn in Egypt, but thousands of years of wanderings and being outsiders should sensitize us to the experience of immigrants.

We just celebrated Sukkot where each night we invite ushpizin (guests) in the symbolic form of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David to enter our sukkot. We are supposed to donate the amount that would feed these supernal guests to the needy. Let us transform our sukkot into a metaphorical sukkah to protect all who need shelter and support.

Pennsylvania should join 15 other states, including New York and New Jersey, which have passed legislation providing driver’s licenses for all. Urge your state representative to support HB-279. It is both the moral and sensible thing to do.

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