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Despite ethics concerns, Shapiro will keep accepting tickets from a group that gets state money
Spotlight PA link: https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2023/12/josh-shapiro-team-pennsylvania-governor-super-bowl-phillies-penn-state-football-gift-ban/
HARRISBURG — Gov. Josh Shapiro plans to continue accepting perks like tickets to sporting events from a nonprofit that receives state money despite concerns he may be violating his own gift ban.
The nonprofit in question is Team Pennsylvania, a public-private partnership that says it works to improve the commonwealth’s “competitiveness and economic prosperity.” This year it paid for tickets and lodgings for Shapiro, a Democrat, to attend the Super Bowl in Arizona, and funded his tickets to a Philadelphia Phillies playoff game and a Penn State football game.
In the latter instances, the administration defended the trips as a chance to “attend the game with business leaders to discuss economic development and job creation” and to celebrate “the work [of] one of the Commonwealth’s most important universities,” respectively. The administration did not proactively disclose who paid for the tickets; Spotlight PA requested that information from a spokesperson.
One expert told Spotlight PA earlier this year that taking tickets from Team PA could conflict with Shapiro’s gift ban, which bars executive branch employees from accepting goods or services, like tickets, from any “person or entity” that “has financial relations with the Commonwealth.”
- more at link -
The nonprofit in question is Team Pennsylvania, a public-private partnership that says it works to improve the commonwealth’s “competitiveness and economic prosperity.” This year it paid for tickets and lodgings for Shapiro, a Democrat, to attend the Super Bowl in Arizona, and funded his tickets to a Philadelphia Phillies playoff game and a Penn State football game.
In the latter instances, the administration defended the trips as a chance to “attend the game with business leaders to discuss economic development and job creation” and to celebrate “the work [of] one of the Commonwealth’s most important universities,” respectively. The administration did not proactively disclose who paid for the tickets; Spotlight PA requested that information from a spokesperson.
One expert told Spotlight PA earlier this year that taking tickets from Team PA could conflict with Shapiro’s gift ban, which bars executive branch employees from accepting goods or services, like tickets, from any “person or entity” that “has financial relations with the Commonwealth.”
Spotlight PA isn't accusing the Governor of any kind of corruption here.
However doesn't this look a tiny bit ... (ahem) questionable? It seems that the Governor has the financial resources and the budget to purchase his own tickets for sporting events. At the beginning of his term he created ethical guidelines for his employees and he seems regard his own behavior differently.
It becomes a slippery slope, once you start making allowances and excuses. Just ask Clarence Thomas about slippery slopes.
