Alert: Reminder of Obligation to Report Certain Political Contributions in Pennsylvania

Under the Pennsylvania Election Code, 25 P.S. § 3260(a), entities that are awarded non-bid contracts[1] by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or any of its political authorities must file a report of political contributions with the Pennsylvania Secretary of State by February 15 of each year. This report must list all political contributions made in the preceding calendar year (x) by the officers, directors, associates, partners, limited partners, [2] individual owners, members and employees of the general partner and management company, and members of their respective immediate families[3] (collectively, “Covered Persons”)(y) to state and local elected officials and candidates for state and local elected office (z) if a Covered Person’s contributions exceeded $1,000 in the aggregate for all candidates and officials in that year. A form of report is attached to this client alert as Annex A. Information from filed reports will be publicly available. 

The general partner and management company of a fund (the general partner, management company and fund, collectively, the “Fund Entities”) admitting a Pennsylvania political authority as a limited partner must file the report. The report must list all qualifying contributions by owners, officers, directors, partners, members, associates of the Fund Entities and their respective immediate families. With respect to employees of the Fund Entities and their immediate families, only those contributions known to the entity’s management must be listed (based on, for instance, an annual survey sent to each employee). If a Covered Person contributed more than $1,000 in the aggregate to all candidates and officeholders, all of the Covered Person’s contributions must be listed even if their contributions to each individual candidate or officeholder did not exceed $1,000 in the prior year. A new requirement established in 2009 is that a Fund Entity that has a non-bid contract with a Pennsylvania political authority must file a certification if none of its Covered Persons made contributions that met the criteria.  The form of this certification is attached to this client alert as Annex B. 

In addition to the obligation imposed by the statute, state authorities sometimes include provisions in their side letter agreements that the fund’s general partner must provide copies of the reports to them by February 15 of each year too. 

Please call Keith Kaplan at (215) 569-4143 or Jon Katona at (215) 569-4222 if you have any questions about this obligation. 

This client alert addresses reporting obligations under the Pennsylvania Election Code, 25 P.S. §3260(a) only. Other states may have similar reporting obligations. If you have questions about reporting obligations in other states, you should discuss them with your state authority investors from those states. Please contact us if you would like assistance with that process.

[1] A negotiated investment by a Pennsylvania state or municipal pension authority (such as PSERS or SERS) in an investment fund constitutes a “non-bid contract” covered by the statute.

[2] A fund is not required to report the political contributions of its unaffiliated limited partners as long as the unaffiliated limited partner does not directly enter into an agreement with the state authority.