Commission on Sentencing accepts clean fiscal audit, flags reserves near depletion

The Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing on March 12 accepted an independent fiscal audit and discussed tightened operating finances, including earmarked reserves and a pending budget request to the governor and General Assembly.

The independent accounting firm Boyer & Ritter completed the commission—s fiscal year audit under a three-year contract, and staff reported the audit found no deficiencies in internal controls or instances of noncompliance. The commission moved to accept the audit; the motion was made by Joshua B. and seconded by Judge Dally, and the acceptance was carried by voice vote with no objections recorded.

Commission leaders and staff used the audit discussion to review operating finances. The commission—s amended operating budget for fiscal year 2024—25 is $3,700,000 and reflects an earlier personnel cut that reduced full-time equivalents from 24 to 22. Staff told members that salaries account for about $2.7 million of the budget, and that the governor—s executive budget had proposed essentially flat funding for the commission. Staff said the commission has tightened discretionary spending, limited travel and held a vacancy in the education-and-outreach unit as short-term cost controls.

Executive Director Dr. Kleinman (identified in materials as the commission—s executive director) reviewed the commission—s liquid reserves, which the staff presented as roughly $1.6 million on the books. Staff explained parts of that balance are earmarked for specific uses: roughly $687,000 tied to JRI-2 funds and approximately $97,000 associated with the commission—s multi-year memorandum of understanding with Penn State University. The commission also makes an annual commitment to Penn State (listed in materials as $225,000) to support shared services and graduate-student research support. After those earmarks and other encumbrances, staff reported only about $72,000 of unencumbered, general-operations cash remained for the fiscal year.

To address the fiscal outlook the executive director told members he had submitted a budget request in February for $4.1 million to the governor—s office, Senate and House leadership. Staff warned that continued flat funding would force further prioritization of Commission services and could jeopardize the ability to answer time-sensitive requests from courts, prosecutors, defense counsel and legislators.

The commission discussed possible outreach strategies to legislative leadership, including coordinating with the panel—s legislative ex-officio members and justice-system stakeholders. No formal change to the operating budget was voted at the meeting beyond acceptance of the audit.

The meeting record shows the audit acceptance and the budget discussion but does not list a roll-call tally for the audit vote; staff recorded the action as accepted by voice without objections.