Other State News

Act 55 Challenges  
Games of Chance 
Open Records Law
OSHA
PA Senate Bill Would Change Rules for Unincorporated Nonprofits
Tax Credit for Volunteer First-Responders
"Unfair" Competition Bill
New Welfare Bill Requiring ID Cards for Recipients Will Prove Costly
Wine Auctions as Charity Benefits

Updates

7/13/10 Name Change to DPW? State Representative Barbara McIlvaine Smith (D- Chester) has proposed House Bill 2492 which would rename Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Welfare to the Department of Human Services. According to Rep. McIlvaine Smith, this would disassociate the department with the term ‘welfare’ which is often regarded with negative implications. McIlvaine Smith believes that legislators use the term welfare to justify cutting funds to social service programs operated by the department. Those opposed to the bill argue that the cost to change the print on letterheads and other related items would be too high. McIlvaine Smith argues that with the upcoming changes in administration, these are alterations that must be made anyhow. DPW currently operates numerous services such as child development and learning, income maintenance, mental health, children and youth, developmental needs, medical assistance and substance abuse. Pennsylvania is one of only two states that use the term ‘welfare’ in their department name.

6/2/10 Nonprofit Bake Sales. A piece of state legislation of interest that is currently sitting on the Governor’s desk for signing is the “Pie bill.”  This legislation removes most of the regulation for charities that operate bake sales.  The law will allow nonprofit community groups, such as churches, booster clubs and volunteer fire companies, to sell non-potentially hazardous home-baked food at fundraisers without the oversight of the State Health Department. The bill is not specific on what potentially hazardous home-baked food includes.  It is likely the Governor will sign the bill into law.

7/1/09 PA Senate Bill Would Change Rules for Unincorporated Nonprofits. Senate Bill 944, an act amending Title 15 (Corporations and Unincorporated Associations), extensively regulating unincorporated nonprofit associations in organic nature, structure, formation, alteration, management, participation, functions, liability and dissolution. The bill was introduced on June 5, 2009 by Senators GREENLEAF, RAFFERTY, ALLOWAY and COSTA, and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. PANO does not recommend operating as an unincorporated nonprofit, but we recognize that all organizations need operating rules. We have not taken a formal position on the bill yet. If you see provisions that could be problematic, please let us know before the bill moves forward.

9/24/08 Tax Credit for Volunteer First-Responders. On July 9, 2008, HB377 was signed into law by the Governor as Act 66 of 2008 creating a $100 state tax credit for volunteer fire, rescue and emergency medical services personnel for the 2008 tax year.  For details on the Volunteer Responder Tax Credit Point System, talking points from the Department of Revenue and email addresses where questions can be directed, go to the Office of the State Fire Commissioner (OSFC) website at http://www.osfc.state.pa.us/osfc/cwp/view.asp?a=7&q=280738&nw=1  or contact Ed Mann, State Fire Commissioner:  800-670-3473

Open Records Law

How does PA Open Records Law impact nonprofit organizations? Nonprofit organizations are not directly impacted by the Open Records provision of the Right to Know Law. The law is specifically for government agencies^.1 The act defines Commonwealth government agents as local, juridical, and legislative. The act does not include nonprofit organizations unless the state defines the nonprofit organization as an agency. According to the definition in the Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law, a commonwealth agency is defined as “any office, department, authority, board, multistate agency or commission of the executive branch; an independent agency; and a State-affiliated entity.”²

It is important to note that nonprofit organizations are indirectly impacted by the Right to Know Law. Agencies are required to provide transparency in many areas including government contracting, grant applications, and more. As a result, many nonprofit’s information pertaining to program funding will be available to citizens who request grant application details.³

1. Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, Pennsylvania’s New Right to Know Law, 2008 https://www.dced.state.pa.us/public/oor/pa_righttoknowlaw.pdf

2. Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, Pennsylvania’s New Right to Know Law, 2008 p. 3
https://www.dced.state.pa.us/public/oor/pa_righttoknowlaw.pdf 

3. Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition, A Quick Guide to Pennsylvania’s New Open Records Law, January 1, 2009 http://www.openrecordspa.org/index_assets/RTKQuickGuide.pdf

11/28/07 New Open Records Bill Less Harmful to Charities; Passes in State Senate. On Nov. 28, 2007, a revised version of SB1 (PN1583) passed the Senate by a 48-1 vote. This new bill lacked the harmful provisions of prior version of SB1. under prior versions, charities with State or local government contracts would be unduly burdened by the costs of records disclosure and retention.

On Nov. 21, 2007, Representatives Mahoney, Grell, Shapiro, DeWeese and others introduced HB2072 (PN2905) to replace HB443 as the new vehicle to amend the State’s 50 year-old Right-to-Know law.

PANO, Catholic Charities, and others have shared with Senate leadership and the House, our concerns on language of the Right-to-Know bills as applied to charities with State or local government contracts. Currently, neither the Senate bill nor the House bill seem to subject charities with government contracts to increased records disclosure obligations.

These amended versions represent a significant improvement over prior versions. The new language appears to limit right-to-know requests to records of a Commonwealth or local agency rather than to records of a nonprofit contractor. While we have been successful, we must remain vigilant. Differences between the House and Senate bills must be worked-out in conference committee, where the situation could change again. We will continue to engage on this issue until a right-to-know bill that does not unnecessarily burden charities is signed into law.

11/19/07 Open Records bills likely to move forward in last week of November. The effort to update Pennsylvania's 50-year-old Right-to-Know Law is based in part on a belief that passage of an open records law offers a victory for the reform-minded freshman legislators.

Under prior versions of SB1, charities with State or local government contracts would have faced significantly greater disclosure obligations and associated costs. With the November 14 addition of the word “PUBLIC” on page 15 line 23 of SB1 (PN1553) and the November 19 addition of the word “PUBLIC” on pages 16 lines 4 and 6 to SB1 (PN1562), it is believed that the Senate has now fixed the problem with the bill.

The House and Senate versions remain quite different. House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese has called for an immediate vote on the HB443. But HB443 last moved in the House on October 30, 2007. HB443 still poses a significant problem for the charitable community. SB1 on the other hand is now on Second consideration in the Senate, and is likely to serve as the vehicle for open records reform. Both bills will have to wait until next week, for a vote and the inevitable conference committee. 

11/7/07 Open Records Bill Will Cost Charities With Government Contracts. Nonprofits contracting with county or local agencies will be treated as State agencies under the new version of the Open Records bills currently being considered by the General Assembly. These bills SB1 and HB443 would require contracting charities to respond to open records requests directly to the public, without a State regulatory agency acting as an intermediary. While this would replace Pennsylvania’s 50-year-old Right-to-Know law and streamline the process, increased costs will be shouldered by the organization required to respond to the records request.

On Oct. 29, 2007 the Senate State Government Committee gutted and amended the original version of SB1 (PN772). The amended SB1 (PN1509) will be a problem for many charities with state or local contracts.

The new version SB1 (PN1509) does not make a contractor an "agency" for purposes of directly responding to public records requests. But, records in the possession of third party contractors which directly relate to performing a governmental function for an agency will be subject to records requests. (See SB1(PN1509) §506(D) pp.38-39). This represents a major change in the current Right-to-Know Law which limits records that must be produced to those "maintained by an agency."

Under SB 1(PN1509), a request for records in the possession of an independent entity or contractor (rather than “maintained by a governmental agency”) would be made directly to the governmental agency. However, the governmental agency and the third party contractor would be responsible for producing the public record(s). Nonprofit organizations subject to these records requests would be required to divert limited staff and resources to locating and producing these records. There is no provision that would reimburse contractors for the administrative costs or employee staff time used responding to records requests.

On Oct. 30, 2007, the House amended HB443 and moved it to second consideration. The House plans to take-up HB443 (PN2800) again during the week of Nov. 13.

Each open records bills will pass their respective chamber. Their differences will be reconciled over the next few weeks by a joint committee. The legislature sees passage of an open records law as a major reform, and expects to pass this before the end of the year.

While this is not typically within the scope of PANO’s public policy activity, it will impact thousands of charities throughout the State.

OSHA

8/15/07 OSHA Worker Safety Standards to Extend to Charities? A new bill (HB1325) was introduced in the State House on June 5 to extend OSHA worker safety standards to State workers and Charities. For State workers and for some charities, workplace safety has been governed by a General Safety Law, which is less stringent and less expensive to implement than are OSHA requirements. The House Labor Relations Committee has scheduled a hearing for September 10 in Harrisburg.

Welfare ID Cards

7/12/07 New Welfare Bill Requiring ID Cards for Recipients Will Prove Costly. On July 12, the welfare reform bill HB83 passed the House by a vote of 197-1. Included in the bill was a provision requiring social service recipients to carry and present a special photo ID card before receiving food stamps, Medicaid, or participating in TANF. DPW would be required to place the photo of an assistance recipient on all benefit cards so that cards can only be used by the approved user.

This provision was amended to the bill on the House floor and received minimal news coverage. According to welfare advocates and DPW sources, requiring ID cards will prove costly to administer for health care providers, county social service providers and for charities that serve low income families and individuals. The concern is that precious resources and countless hours will be spent helping recipients navigate the process of getting an ID or in teaching their own staff when and how to check IDs.

Similar legislation was enacted in Colorado in 2006 with dismal results. Colorado has spent an estimated $2 million administrating their Welfare ID law and realized no cost savings whatsoever. While the Colorado law was designed to prevent illegal aliens from receiving public benefits, the Pennsylvania provision, arguably, has a similar purpose. For more information on the Colorado experience go to www.coloradoidproject.org. 

HB 83 now heads to the Senate. For more information or to get involved contact Richard Weishaupt at Community legal Services, Inc. at RWeishaupt@clsphila.org.

For analysis on HB83 and welfare in Pennsylvania go to http://www.pennbpc.org/understanding_welfare.php. 

Wine Auctions

6/27/07 House Passes Bill to Allow Charities to Benefit From Wine Auctions. The House proposed by Rep. Mario Scavello passed the House by a vote of 177-23. HB 1481 would allow select charities to receive special permits for fundraising wine auctions. Other charities who are interested in hosting wine auctions must petition for a permit. Select charities include nonprofit hospitals; certain nonprofit public television stations; orchestras or museums, and organizations that train and place dogs for people with physical handicaps. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.