Mar. 20, 2017
Audit report available to public online
HARRISBURG – The bicameral, bipartisan Legislative Audit Advisory Commission (LAAC), chaired by Rep. Mark Keller (R-Perry/Cumberland), today voted to accept the audit report of the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s finances for the 2015-16 fiscal year as conducted by an independent certified public accounting firm.
The annual audit of the various legislative departments and legislative service agencies revealed a reserve of $118,442,957, as of June 30, 2016. The audit was carried out by Boyer and Ritter LLC of Camp Hill.
“Reserve funds are necessary to ensure the continued and independent operation of the General Assembly,” said Keller. “As recently as two years ago, we had to draw down from these reserves during the lengthy budget impasse about whether to increase sales and income taxes, or control spending.”
Keller pointed out that the current reserve is about $90 million less than it was 10 years ago, when it totaled more than $210 million.
The full audit and report can be viewed on the Pennsylvania General Assembly website,
legis.state.pa.us, or at the direct link,
legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/cteeInfo/laac.cfm. Audits and reports from the previous nine years are also available online.
“Our goal is to make the audit documents easy to understand and fully accessible to Pennsylvania citizens,” Keller added. “The public is encouraged to go to the website and review them.”
Below is a breakdown of the reserves included in the audit (as of June 30, 2016):
• Senate – $23,348,536.
• House of Representatives – $56,903,139.
• Legislative Reference Bureau – $6,627,653.
• Legislative Budget and Finance Committee – $1,352,783.
• Legislative Data Processing Committee – $14,283,218.
• Joint State Government Commission – $920,934.
• Local Government Commission – $631,190.
• Legislative Air and Water Pollution Control Commission – $376,685.
• LAAC – $222,000.
• Independent Regulatory Review Commission – $1,491,058.
• Capitol Preservation Committee – $3,178,473.
• Independent Fiscal Office – $2,755,627.
• Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission – $1,003,999.
• Commonwealth Mail Processing Center – $4,623,721.
• Center for Rural Pennsylvania – $723,941.
The LAAC was formed as a result of Act 151 of 1970. The commission consists of eight members, including a majority and a minority member of the House of Representatives and two public members appointed by the House speaker; and a majority and a minority member of the Senate and two public members appointed by the president pro tempore of the Senate.
Current commission members include: Keller, Rep. Florindo Fabrizio (D-Erie), Sen. Patrick Browne (R-Lehigh), Sen. Lawrence Farnese (D-Philadelphia), Peter Barsz (House appointee), Jeffrey Berdahl (House appointee), Merritt Reitzel (Senate appointee) and Ira Weiss (Senate appointee).
LAAC’s function is twofold. It examines the standards of audits performed under the provisions of Section 10 of Article VIII of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, and recommends measures for the improvement of pre-auditing of the financial affairs of the Commonwealth. It also reports annually recommendations and suggested legislation, if any, for the improvement of auditing in the Commonwealth, and particularly as it pertains to the Legislature.
Representative Mark Keller
86th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Andy Briggs
717.260.6474
abriggs@pahousegop.com
RepKeller.com /
Facebook.com/RepKeller