In the previous article on Municipal Authorities we discussed their emergence, purpose and utilization throughout the Commonwealth. We also touched on recent reform measures within the General Assembly to address their misuse and abuse.

Today we have some figures from recent filings provided to the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) by individual authorities throughout the Commonwealth. In this instance I cannot stress the fact that this is not a complete overview.

Municipal Authorities are required to submit annual audits and a summary of their financial statements to DCED, but requirements and realities don't necessarily coincide with one another when dealing with government data.

When questioned about the lack of information existing on the Harrisburg Authority, Executive Director Shannon Williams explained that the 2010-2011 information was recently submitted to DCED because their audits were not completed on time. This was due to the fact that the Harrisburg Authority was waiting on the City of Harrisburg to finalize their audits before they could finish their submission to DCED. Here's Harrisburg Authority Member Bill Cluck discussing the problems created by the city's seemingly routine failure to complete their audits in a timely manner.

An overwhelming majority of records in our database are from 2011, this is either because the information was not submitted to DCED, or because DCED has yet to input the information into their system.

Enter the name of a county in the map below to view the net income and debt for authorities operating within that county. The data provided is from 2011 and provides the type of authority, its name, total net income and debts.

Photo by Natalie Cake