Bill to donate old campaign funds to charity advances in Senate

• Jordan Wilkie/WITF
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  As the democracy reporter for WITF, I will cover any kind of story that has to do with how we govern ourselves. That will include doing a lot of election coverage about how to access the ballot, how public officials administer elections, the technology used to run and secure elections, and the laws that govern it all.
  
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 SUZETTE WENGER | Staff Photographer / LNP Media Group

Campaign finance reports are filed away in two inconspicuous filing cabinets in the Lancaster County Board of Elections, holding all the information of who is influencing our local elections on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021.

A Pennsylvania Senate committee on Tuesday approved a bill to give current and former lawmakers more options for disposing of leftover campaign funds. 

Legislation pushed by Sen. Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, would allow that money to be donated to nonprofits. 

The State Government Committee unanimously agreed to send Senate Bill 181 to the full chamber. Costa has been bringing this proposal since 2018, when it passed the Senate on a 49-0 vote but stalled in the House. 

Under current rules, when a campaign is over, candidates have three options for what to do with leftover money: They can return it to donors, which can be cumbersome for money donated to past campaigns, or  they can give it to other candidates or hold onto it for themselves. 

Candidates who plan to run for office again will likely hold on to their money. 

But there are “thousands and thousands” of accounts that are open, even some for candidates who have long since died, Costa said. 

“This is a way which we could clean that up a little bit and more importantly be able to get some of these residual funds in the hands of charitable organizations and nonprofit organizations that do good work in the communities,” he said. 

The Department of State did not immediately have data to confirm Costa’s statement. The DOS also did not say whether it supports the bill.

Costa’s own father, who was the Allegheny County treasurer, still has a campaign account open in his name, 36 years after his death, he said. There’s about $25,000 remaining, he said. That money could go to a scholarship fund at a university, or to support food banks in light of federal funding cuts, Costa said. 

Campaigns would not be allowed to give money to any group associated with a politician or campaign officers. 

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