Office of Speaker Dennis M. O’Brien

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

139 Main Capitol Building, Harrisburg

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          CONTACT:  Bill Patton

                                                                                                                       717-787-4610

Speaker welcomes legislative audit report

HARRISBURG, March 17 – House Speaker Dennis O’Brien today thanked the Legislative Audit Advisory Commission for its work in documenting the status of legislative accounts as of June 2007.

The LAAC issued a report today that will be reviewed by House and Senate leaders. It includes recommendations for improving oversight, accountability and clarity of various funds that are maintained by the legislature and its agencies.

“Outside auditors were tapped by the commission to give us a sense of where things stand financially at a point in time,” O’Brien said. “With this base of information, we can make much better decisions about what resources the legislature needs to ensure its ability to function as an independent branch of government.”

The audit commission’s recommendations include:

• Centralizing and standardizing the financial information systems used by the House, Senate and legislative service agencies.
• Transferring oversight of committee expense accounts in the House from individual committee chairmen to the House comptroller.
• Enacting a standard leave tracking system for all House staff. The Senate already does this.
• Unspecified reductions in the reserves kept in various legislative accounts, which now total more than $200 million across all accounts.

“The reserve appropriations kept by the House and Senate have built up over a number of years because in many years less was spent than was appropriated,” O’Brien said. “Unlike departments under the governor’s jurisdiction, and unlike legislatures in most other states, the Pennsylvania legislature is not required to return unspent money. It simply accumulates.

“The General Assembly does need to keep enough money on hand to preserve its independence in case of a budget struggle with a governor. But the huge reserve that now exists has raised many questions, understandably.

“At a time when money is tight for critical needs throughout state government, it would be a tremendous act of good faith by the legislature to cut back on the money it’s holding for contingencies and make at least $100 million available for programs that are urgently needed,” O’Brien said.

“I see this as a sensible step for us to take,” he said.

The Legislative Audit Advisory Commission is chaired by Deputy Speaker Josh Shapiro and includes Sens. Pat Browne and Gerald LaValle, Rep. Gordon Denlinger and non-legislative appointees Morris Gocial, Robert Butera, Mark Freemer and Peter Capataides.

Today’s report was submitted to the Bipartisan Management Committee of the House and the Committee on Management Operations of the Senate. These groups are composed of the senior leaders of both political parties in each chamber.

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