The Pittsburgh Foundation, one of the largest charitable organizations in the region and one that reports assets of more than $1 billion, laid out a new strategic plan Tuesday that places racial justice and reducing social inequality at the forefront of its philanthropic commitments.

One of the most immediate measures is a planned $50 million investment over the next five years toward racial equity and justice-related causes, according to foundation leadership, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated disparities affecting key communities.

In addition, the foundation is setting a goal to ensure at least half of grants from its unrestricted grant-making pool of funds go to organizations led by and serving members of Pittsburgh’s Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities by 2027.

“We'll be prioritizing racial and economic justice based on what data has told us about who has been left out — particularly based on what has been learned during COVID-19, during a time of racial reckoning, in which it's become very clear that we haven't made the progress that we need to make,” said Lisa Schroeder, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Foundation.

Special Elections Q & A Information for Voters

Q. What is the date of the Special Election?
A. Special Elections in all 3 districts now have a confirmed date of Tuesday, February 7th, 2023.

Q. Is the Special Election a Primary?
A. No. The Special Election determines the final result. The winner will take office immediately, and serve the remainder of the current term, which ends November 30, 2024.

Q. Who can vote in a Special Election?
A. All registered voters who live in one of these districts, whether or not they are registered in a political party, can vote in these special elections.

Q. How are the candidates chosen without a Primary?
A. Instead of holding a primary election, the political parties nominate candidates directly according to internal party rules.

Q. Where do I vote in a Special Election?
A. You can vote in person at your usual polling place between 7 am and 8 pm. All precincts in the district will be open for the special election.

Q. Can I use a mail-in ballot for a Special Election?
A. Yes. Mail-in ballots will be available for each special election. You must submit your request for a mail-in ballot by 5:00 pm on January 31st. The online request form is available here: Mail-in Ballot Request

Q. Can I use the same ballot request form used for regularly scheduled elections?
A. Yes. You use the same form. If you submit your ballot request before the Special Election deadline (and live in a district with a special election), you will receive a mail-in ballot for the special election. If you submit the request after the Special Election deadline, you will receive a ballot for the Primary Election.

Q. If I was on the most recent "Annual List" for mail-in ballots in 2022, will I receive a ballot for this Special Election?
A. Yes. When you complete an annual ballot request you will receive a mail-in ballot for any special election in which you are eligible to vote up through the 3rd Monday in February of the following year. February 7, 2023 falls within this window.

HARRISBURG – Two lawmakers have announced plans for legislation that would strip the state’s Medical Marijuana Advisory Board of one of its main functions – determining what serious medical conditions entitle patients to legally use marijuana products.

Under the proposal, patients would be entitled to use marijuana for any medical condition if their doctors determine they could benefit from it. In a cosponsor memo, Sen. Mike Regan, R-Cumberland, and Sen. James Brewster, D-Allegheny, said that “elected officials and bureaucratic staffers should not be deciding what ailment qualifies an individual to use medical marijuana.”

The proposal from Mr. Regan and would be similar to the medical marijuana rules in Oklahoma. The Marijuana Policy Project says almost 10% of Oklahoma’s population were medical marijuana patients in 2021. If that percentage were repeated in Pennsylvania, there’d be about 1.2 million medical marijuana patients.

The new proposal comes as Pennsylvania is becoming increasingly surrounded by states where any adult can legally obtain marijuana but efforts to relax the state’s marijuana laws for adult recreational marijuana use have been stymied by opposition from Republican lawmakers. While Democrats are poised to take the majority in the state House and could advance a marijuana legalization bill, Republicans hold the majority in the Senate.

HARRISBURG — A lobbyist for one of Pennsylvania’s most influential unions says a sitting state House lawmaker sexually harassed her, and she is urging the legislature to expand internal rules that govern who can bring misconduct complaints.

Andi Perez, who advocates on behalf of Service Employees International Union 32BJ in Harrisburg, plans to make the allegation Friday evening in Philadelphia during a listening session organized by new state Houser Speaker Mark Rozzi (D., Berks).

Rozzi has scheduled a series of public meetings to solicit feedback about the state House’s operating procedures amid partisan deadlock over which political party controls the chamber. The sessions offer a rare opportunity for Pennsylvanians to directly weigh in on the rules, which in most years are quickly adopted at the beginning of each new legislative session.

Perez said she was harassed by a male lawmaker while discussing a bill outside of the Capitol building, according to prepared testimony reviewed by Spotlight PA. She did not provide the lawmaker’s name, his party affiliation, or additional details.

The lawmaker “decided to caress my leg while I was wearing a skirt all the while telling me he was impressed by my passion and knowledge of the issues we were discussing,” Perez plans to say. “I moved away from him hoping he would stop — he did not.”

Two Western Pennsylvania school districts are among a dozen across the state accused by Pennsylvania’s auditor general of moving money in their budgets to raise taxes above a state limit without voter approval. North Allegheny and Canon-McMillan in Washington County were included in the audit, which looked at finances between 2018 and 2021.

The findings, revealed in a report released Wednesday by Auditor General Timothy DeFoor, suggest the districts are “strategically transferring and ‘committing’ funds” in order to raise taxes despite having millions of dollars in general fund accounts.

“These districts have found a way to use the law to their advantage so they could always raise property taxes,” Mr. DeFoor said. “It’s basically a ‘shell game’ that allowed these 12 school districts to collectively raise taxes 37 times during the four years we reviewed, which increased their respective General Fund accounts to $390 million.”

In addition to North Allegheny and Canon-McMillan, districts included in the audit are Abington, Bethlehem Area, Hempfield, Lower Merion, Neshaminy, Northampton, North Penn, Penn Manor, Lancaster and West Chester Area. The districts, which had not been audited by the state since 2017, were chosen because of the size of their fund balances.

Each district had also applied for exceptions to the Act 1 index, or the maximum tax increase set by the state. The exception, managed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, allows approved districts to raise taxes above the index to cover costs related to construction debt, special education and retirement contributions. It bypasses a voter referendum, which is typically required to raise taxes above that threshold.

STATE COLLEGE — Pennsylvania State Police sent 70 employees to Penn State’s University Park campus in October to provide additional security for an event featuring one of the founders of the Proud Boys, a violent extremist group. But unlike the local police departments that assisted Penn State police at the event, State Police were not reimbursed for their services.

On Oct. 24, a Penn State student group hosted two far-right activists for a “comedy” event on campus. Despite repeated public statements from Penn State leaders calling the speakers’ views “abhorrent,” officials declined public calls to cancel the event, citing the constitutional right to freedom of speech. The student group paid the activists $7,500 in student fees for the appearance.

That evening, protesters gathered outside the campus building where the event was scheduled, and police did not immediately intervene when individuals in the crowd sprayed a chemical irritant at protesters, according to videos shared online. Officers from four local police departments and State Police, some on horseback, were on hand to help control the crowd. Penn State then canceled the event just before it was scheduled to begin, due to “the threat of escalating violence.”

Spotlight PA requested reimbursement payment information under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law from the police agencies working that evening. State Police told Spotlight PA in response to a records request that “no reimbursement occurred.”

A tell-all book about the Manhattan district attorney's office investigation into Donald Trump could be held up by a nondisclosure agreement.

The Daily Beast obtained the NDA warning that “any work performed for the office” is “privileged and confidential," which could jeopardize publication of the book, People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account, written by former special assistant DA Mark Pomerantz -- one of two prosecutors who quit in protest when incoming district attorney Alvin Bragg shied way from indicting the former president.

"That indictment never happened," says publisher Simon & Schuster. "This book explains why."

The book, which is due out Feb. 7, gives an inside account of the three-year investigation by Manhattan district attorneys to show that Trump defrauded banks and insurers, lied about real estate values on financial forms, avoided corporate taxes and violated campaign laws by paying hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

Bragg has recently won two tax fraud convictions against Trump companies and finance chief Allen Weisselberg, and has indicated he may revive the case against the former president, but his office is now trying to block the Pomerantz book from hitting store shelves.

Welcome back to Route Fifty’s Public Finance Update! I’m Liz Farmer and this is the second installment of my series on Chester, Pennsylvania’s bankruptcy.

As with most—if not all—municipal bankruptcies, there’s a lot of blame being thrown around. But in Chester’s case, sentiments on all sides appear particularly caustic. So much so that for nearly two years, the receiver’s team has been working out of a sparsely furnished office a half-block away from City Hall. In courtroom testimony earlier this month, Receiver Michael Doweary described being called the “N-word” during a verbal altercation with Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland. Doweary, meanwhile, has accused city officials of nepotism and fiscal malfeasance, if not outright corruption.

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A key driver of the conflict is around fiscal management and disclosure. Amid its budget troubles, the city has racked up $750,000 in Internal Revenue Service penalties related to unpaid payroll taxes, fell victim to a $400,000 phishing scam that wasn’t publicly disclosed for months, cycled through two chief financial officers in as many years and has failed to produce an audited financial report since 2018. But perhaps the most striking example of the problems surrounding the city’s bankruptcy is the discord—and conflicting information—around Chester’s underfunded police pension.

Like other distressed cities, Chester has an outsized pension liability and annual pension bills that would take up a substantial portion of its budget if paid in full. But also like other cities, Chester hadn’t been paying its entire bill—called the Minimum Municipal Obligation (MMO) in Pennsylvania. In 2021, the city paid its full MMO for the first time since 2013 and it was a significant lift. The total it spent on pension and retiree health care costs that year—$14.6 million—took up 28% of its entire general fund.

But there’s a bigger problem: Due to accounting practices that inflated the plan’s assets and a dispute over what the city’s police pension formula actually is, no one really knows what Chester’s true unfunded liabilities are.