Pennsylvania Gets Only C- for Online Disclosure of Economic Development Information
Good Jobs First Study Yields Findings Similar to Those of KRC in 2003
Pennsylvania garners a grade of C, 73 percent, in a new national study evaluating the accessibility of public information on state government websites. The state received a grade of C- for its web-based disclosure of information on job creation subsidies awarded to Pennsylvania businesses. The study, a research project of Good Jobs First (GJF), a national policy resource center promoting corporate and government accountability, ranked the 50 states' websites on the quantity and quality of information provided in three areas: procurement contracts, lobbying activities, and economic development subsidies.
The full Good Jobs First report can be found online at www.goodjobsfirst.org/statedisclosure.cfm.
The study's release comes in the midst of ongoing debate in Pennsylvania on legislative bonuses, pay raises, and other matters involving good government and the public's right-to-know. Currently, bills in both the state House and Senate call for improved public record disclosure.
The area in which Pennsylvania ranked highest, disclosure of information on economic development subsidies, has been a focus of Keystone Research Center (KRC) research over the past decade. KRC is a non-profit, non-partisan Pennsylvania economic research organization.
An overall grade of C places Pennsylvania in a tie for 12th place among all states. That is higher than many Pennsylvanians might expect who are used to thinking of the Commonwealth as a laggard in "good government." Yet the competition was not exactly stiff, GJF notes.
"Not a single state receives better than a B across the three categories we rated," wrote the authors of the study, The State of State Disclosure: An Evaluation of Online Public Information about Economic Development Subsidies, Procurement Contracts and Lobbying Activities.
According to GJF researchers, the report focused exclusively on information readily available to the public on an open website. It did not consider data that might be available through queries to agencies or through formal "open records" requests. "In the age of the internet," the researchers wrote, "the key criterion for public access should be what is immediately viewable at a government website."
Good Jobs First Executive Director Greg LeRoy said findings in the economic development division were particularly disappointing. "Many states have been slow to adopt vigorous online disclosure," he noted, "especially with respect to economic development subsidies."
Pennsylvania, however, won a mention in the report summary as having one of "the best" websites for the disclosure of economic development subsidies, and the state ranked fourth in that category. Still, its grade in subsidy disclosure was only a C-minus, and the report criticized The Department of Community and Economic Development's "Investment Tracker" site as having old data, hard-to-find links, and incomplete program information.
"The Good Jobs First findings are pretty much in line with what we found four years ago," said Stephen Herzenberg, PhD, a Keystone Research Center economist.
In 2003 Keystone served as a contractor to the Brookings Institution on a report and set of recommendations to improve Pennsylvania's economy. Along with a study of the location of businesses receiving subsidies--conducted for Brookings' Back to Prosperity report--Keystone developed and posted an interactive map that shows where economic development funds were used. The map received media notice nationally as a model for how to make information on business subsidies transparent.
LeRoy said that Pennsylvania and other states would do well to replicate Keystone's web map. "It gave the public an easy-to-use and highly informative way to get real and meaningful information on economic development subsidies," he noted. To view the map today, visit www.keystoneresearch.org/subsidies or go directly to www.keystoneresearchmap.org.
Herzenberg credited former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge with helping move Pennsylvania near the head of a poorly performing class when it comes to internet-accessible information on business subsidies. He also credited the Rendell Administration with improving the Investment Tracker site by providing clear information on the communities in which subsidies are actually used. However, Herzenberg noted, the actual addresses of the business sites are still not reported.
Dennis Bellafiore, PhD, a co-author of the 2003 KRC subsidy study with extensive experience using the Investment Tracker, agreed with the main points of the Good Jobs First report. "There is some basic information on the Investment Tracker," he said.
"But let's face it, a C-minus is not good enough," Bellafiore continued. "The public deserves better."
For example, Bellafiore said, the Investment Tracker tells the public nothing about the quality of jobs on particular projects: the wages, health care coverage or other benefits provided by the jobs, and how accessible those jobs are to mass transit or good public transportation. Nor does it indicate whether jobs that were promised were actually created.
Also lacking is information on state and local tax breaks received by individual businesses to create jobs, and information on whether business sites are redeveloped industrial space ("brownfields") or greenfield sites that chew up scarce lands.
"The good news is that we do know how to do better," Herzenberg said.
Herzenberg added that, for the first time, there is now a "ready and willing" bipartisan coalition of diverse groups, including environmentalists and labor leaders, that is actively pursuing improved government accountability and better public disclosure practices.
Linda Morrison of Republicans for Environmental Protection is a part of that coalition and welcomes the findings of the Good Jobs First report. A Chester County resident, she points out that very often state programs spend millions of farmland preservation dollars to stop sprawl while other state programs give millions in economic development money to subsidize businesses that develop farmland and fuel sprawl. The latter, she said, "makes no sense in counties that have very low unemployment rates and do not need or want new jobs."
"It's easy to find out exactly what is spent on farmland preservation in each county, but taxpayers – and our state legislators! – are kept in the dark when it comes to economic development subsidies," Morrison continued. "Republicans believe in government accountability, and we need good information so we can determine if taxpayer money is being spent wisely."
The Good Jobs First report concludes by offering state officials and legislators a set of policy options to improve online transparency. They include:
- Make it possible to browse through complete databases on subsidies, contracts, etc. as well as to search for data on a specific organization.
- Provide a variety of data formats, so that users can either download full databases and analyze the information offline or import the data to other Web sites (through Application Programming Interfaces).
- Enhance subsidy and contract disclosure to include data on outcomes. For example, subsidy disclosure should reveal how many jobs (with what wage rates, benefits, etc.) were created by subsidized companies, and contract disclosure show indicate how well the vendor company carried out its responsibilities.
- Also enhance subsidy and contract disclosure to include data on the past performance of companies. This could include their track record on environmental, workplace, and consumer-protection compliance as well as the existence of any tax liens.
- Combine disclosure about subsidies, contract awards and lobbying with data on state campaign contributions by the companies involved or their top executives.
Two bills currently in the Pennsylvania state legislature, House Bill 175 and Senate Bill 784, call for improved public disclosure of information on state and local economic development subsidies and tax breaks. These bills would also require that subsidized businesses pay decent wages and benefits, and that companies pay back subsidies if they fail to deliver promised jobs and job quality.
The Keystone Research Center (KRC) is an independent, non-partisan economic research and policy organization the mission of which is to promote a more prosperous and equitable Pennsylvania.
- 30 -
For Pennsylvania
Economic Development Subsidies in Pennsylvania: Do They Fuel Sprawl? by Dennis Bellafiore, Stephen Herzenberg, Meg Myer, and Allan Rothrock.
Many Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority Loans Create Low Quality Jobs by David Bradley.
www.keystonereserchmap.org is KRC's ground-breaking interactive mapping site that shows how economic development assistance information could be made available more transparently.
Pennsylvania's Official "Investment Tracker" the subsidy reporting website developed by the Department of Community and Economic Development.
How PA Feeds Sprawl and Creates Low-Wage Jobs Through Economic Development Subsidies (Power Point) by the Keystone Research Center.
PA House Bill 175 and PA Senate Bill 784, both introduced in 2007, which call for improved disclosure of information on state economic development subsides and tax breaks.
Outside Pennsylvania
A Second Chance for Cities (PDF) by Neal Pearce. The nationally syndicated column profiling KRC's subsidy map.
Sprawl of the Wild (PDF) in Government Technology. The national cover story on KRC's subsidy map.
Good Jobs First's Guide to Accountable Development by the leading national clearinghouse for information on economic development accountability.
Accountability for Economic Development by Minnesota State Senator John Hottinger. A review of work in Minnesota to pass accoutability legislation.
Economic Development Accountability Laws by Steve Lerch of the Washington State Institute for Public Policy
Accountable Economic Development (PDF) from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy.
In Search of the Great Pumpkin: Economic Development Accountability in North Dakota by Anne Nolan and Greg LeRoy.
To be informed when new information is posted to this issue guide, add your name and email to our mailing list