HARRISBURG — Sens. Chris Gebhard (R-48) and Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-28) joined Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity today to highlight efforts to safeguard taxpayers’ hard-earned money by addressing waste and further mitigating improper payments made by state government.
“Far too often, state government fails taxpayers as good stewards of their tax dollars, with historically high improper payment rates here in Pennsylvania,” said Gebhard. “With every dollar spent by the state coming from the hard-working people of Pennsylvania, we need to do better and provide more transparency to protect the taxpayer’s money. I’m thankful to be working alongside both State Treasurer Garrity and Sen. Phillips-Hill to combat wasteful spending by this administration.”
Gebhard and Phillips-Hill will introduce legislation that will require each commonwealth agency to perform a review and assessment of each program that is not already subject to the federal Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 to determine which programs are vulnerable to improper payments. An improper payment, as defined by federal law going back to 2002, includes any overpayment, underpayment or payment to ineligible recipients.
“At a minimum, we must hold state government to the same level of responsibility which we hold ourselves to in our own personal finances,” Phillips-Hill said. “There is no reason today that our government should be improperly spending nearly a billion dollars every year. The hardworking people of Pennsylvania would not tolerate this in their home, and I certainly will not stand for it here in Harrisburg.”
Additionally, each agency would be required to perform this assessment every two years, and the secretary of the budget would be required to provide a publicly accessible website with detailed information on each agency’s improper payment assessment.
“Every Pennsylvania taxpayer deserves to know exactly how their hard-earned money is being spent, and I commend Sens. Gebhard and Phillips-Hill for their commitment to increasing government transparency,” said Treasurer Garrity. “I’ve prioritized expanding access to our state’s financial data, and with Treasury’s newly implemented Payment Production and Improper Payments Report, Pennsylvanians have more tools than ever before to hold their government accountable, and this legislation will ensure that the Treasury will continue to share these details going forward.”
During today’s event, Treasurer Garrity announced that in fiscal year 2025-26, Treasury prevented $1.4 billion in improper payments, providing taxpayers with more than $75 million in savings. Full details can be found in the newly released Payment Production and Improper Payments Report presented by Treasury. By posting this updated report, along with a version highlighting savings for fiscal year 2024-25, on its government transparency website, OpenBookPA, Treasurer Garrity demonstrates her commitment to identifying overpayments, duplicate payments, and incorrect payees — helping to protect Pennsylvania taxpayers.
Watch the full press conference here.