HARRISBURG — After Democrats on an evenly divided committee rejected an attempt to subpoena Pat Browne, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s revenue secretary, a senator who heads a different, Republican-controlled committee said it may issue a subpoena if Mr. Shapiro does not intervene.
At issue are records of state taxes generated by a special redevelopment zone created in Allentown years ago via a law written by then-Sen. Browne. Repeated attempts to obtain the records have failed. Those include a two-year Right-to-Know effort by an Allentown newspaper that ended when Mr. Browne crafted confidentiality language that made its way into state law.
A proposal to subpoena Mr. Browne for the records was put before the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee in late June, and failed in a 6-6 vote with all Democrats opposed and all Republicans in favor. Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Lehigh and chairman of the Intergovernmental Operations Committee, said he thinks Mr. Shapiro should tell Mr. Browne and the Department of Revenue to turn over the data.
“The Intergovernmental Operations Committee is exploring all legal options to get this information. Those would include issuing a subpoena, if necessary,” Mr. Coleman said. “I am really calling on the governor to step in.”
A spokesperson for Mr. Shapiro declined comment.
Allentown’s Neighborhood Improvement Zone is a unique 128-acre tract given special status via a state law that Mr. Browne wrote. Within it, virtually all taxes created by new development can be used by property owners to pay down debt from their building projects. Since it passed, huge projects have been completed in downtown Allentown, including a new hockey arena and a hotel.
The LBFC was directed by the Legislature to audit the zone. Mr. Coleman and others believe revenue figures for 21 different types of taxes are necessary to evaluate how the zone is performing.
“We have reached out to the Secretary of Revenue on multiple occasions requesting the information and we were blocked from receiving the information,” Mr. Coleman said.
The Revenue Department told the LBFC it could not provide the information as requested in order to protect taxpayer confidentiality. Before the 6-6 vote, Rep. Steve Samuelson, D-Northampton, said some tax categories in the zone had only one or two taxpayers, meaning disclosing all the data might reveal individual taxpayer data.
Lawmakers, he said, should not be “peering into” individuals’ tax data.
Another Democrat, Rep. Scott Conklin of Centre County, said he was “disturbed” by the subpoena proposal, which he speculated was related to “an undercurrent that I am not going to mention.” He did not elaborate.
Mr. Browne previously was the influential Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Mr. Coleman was a newcomer to statewide politics in 2022 when he defeated Mr. Browne in the primary election. Mr. Browne was subsequently chosen by Mr. Shapiro for the job of revenue secretary.
Mr. Coleman said he suspects that a huge amount of NIZ revenue was generated by taxes related to cigarettes — but without data from the Department of Revenue, that is impossible to determine.
Sen. Jim Brewster of Allegheny County, vice chairman and the top Democrat on the LBFC, said the committee did its job by requesting the data in writing from the Department of Revenue, even though it was rejected. The subpoena concept went too far, according to Mr. Brewster.
“I don’t like the idea of subpoenaing another area of government,” Mr. Brewster said.
Ford Turner: fturner@post-gazette.com
First Published: July 8, 2024, 7:56 p.m.
