Tell Shapiro to Stop the Secrecy!

Gov. Josh Shapiro and his administration are actively working to reduce transparency and hide shady accounting gimmicks from the citizens of Pennsylvania. In his first year as governor, Shapiro has refused to share his daily schedule, removed contact information from public websites, and ignored state laws to shortchange the Rainy Day Fund.

Shapiro’s Shady Actions 2024

Governor Shapiro’s executive order to implement “automatic voter registration (AVR)” when a resident renews their driver license was covertly extended to vehicle registration forms. In at least one case, a voter’s registration was erroneously changed to an address where he didn’t live. The lack of the administration’s transparency is jeopardizing the integrity of voter rolls.
Governor Shapiro spent more than $92,000 in taxpayer funds upgrading the Governor’s Mansion, including questionable purchases of a $4,500 massaging couch and $6,600 for TVs. Staff urged merchants to keep quiet about the purchases.
Governor Shapiro allowed his signature to be used on mailers guiding people to request mail-in ballots through Vote.pa — a URL that closely resembles the official state voter registration website of vote.pa.gov but which also surreptitiously collects user data for leftist political campaign purposes.
Shapiro racked up $270,000 in taxpayer-funded air travel costs his first year in office—far more than even his predecessor Tom Wolf’s busiest travel year, which cost taxpayers $136,000 in 2018.
Shapiro’s budget address venue cost taxpayers $41,500, a heftier price tag than is usual for PA budget addresses. This was the first time the venue—the Pennsylvania Capital Rotunda—was used for the budget address.
The Shapiro administration has actively blocked efforts to reveal why the governor’s office spent more than $350,000 in taxpayer dollars to hire private law firms. In response to a public records request first filed when Tom Wolf was governor, the Office of General Counsel released heavily redacted invoices that obscured why the money was spent. A Commonwealth Court panel has now ruled that the governor’s office must remove some of the redactions.
Gov. Shapiro hosted and spoke at a taxpayer-funded “Democracy Summer Camp” in Philadelphia for around 50 digital content creators. One attendee said it was “about how to promote the election this November [and] talk about how we can combat misinformation.” The administration did not disclose the agenda, presenters, participants, how much the day-long event cost, or where the funding came from.

Shapiro’s Shady Actions 2023

Shapiro required his transition team and inauguration team to sign a nondisclosure agreement barring them from publicly discussing their activities.
Unlike his predecessors, Shapiro refused to disclose donors to the nonprofit organizations set up for his inauguration party and transition team.
Shapiro exploited loopholes in campaign finance laws. The governor used campaign funds to attend a sold-out Sixers game with one of his largest campaign donors. He circumvented requirements to disclose the cost of the tickets or who paid for the tickets.
Unlike his Democrat predecessor, Tom Wolf, Shapiro does not make his daily calendar available to the public.
After campaigning on more education options for families, our governor line-item vetoed Lifeline Scholarships, referred to as the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS), the very program he pledged to support and the top budget priority of the state Senate, creating a months-long budget stalemate.
The Shapiro administration removed an online database of state employee emails, claiming they posed a cyber security risk.
The governor refused to release a state-maintained database of certified police officers. The request came from a national coalition of newsrooms seeking more information to help hold law enforcement accountable.
Shapiro unilaterally canceled a multi-million dollar, 27-year-old contract with Real Alternatives to fund 83 social service centers across the state..
Shapiro negotiated in secret with one of his largest campaign contributors on new labor union contracts with a 22 percent salary increase.
For five months, the governor kept his “Climate Change Working Group” completely secret. The group met privately, without keeping public minutes, then at the end of September, Shapiro released the names of the working group members along with an inconclusive four-page memo.
In September, the governor moved to circumvent the law and undermine the Pennsylvania Constitution by shortchanging the commonwealth’s Rainy Day Fund. Instead of transferring the approximately $900 million required by existing law, Secretary of the Budget Uri Monson announced he will only transfer $412 million.
Two days before Thanksgiving, Gov. Shapiro announced he will use taxpayer resources to fight for a carbon tax (known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative) in court. The carbon tax will cost Pennsylvanians an estimated $800 million in electricity bills and undermine the reliability of our electrical grid. Shapiro is quietly embracing his predecessor’s radical policy. About one year earlier Shapiro told voters, “I have real concerns about the impact [RGGI] will have on consumer prices, hurting families.”
Gov. Shapiro plans to continue accepting free tickets to high profile sporting events from Team Pennsylvania despite concerns that it violates his own gift ban. Team PA is non-profit backed by large corporations, health systems, and unions including Shell, Penn State Health, Deloitte, APSCUF State Office, and IBEW District 3.