Anonymous donations are nice when it comes to things like a new wing in an art museum or urgent assistance for a natural disaster.
An anonymous donation in these instances is easily understood as altruism. There is little that a museum can give back in return other than appreciation and a receipt for a tax deduction. Helping with one earthquake won’t protect you from another.
Even the silence makes sense. Write a big check and pose for a picture, and it is only a matter of time until you are asked to write another check.
Giving to government is different from giving to a charity. A charity can promise anonymity without a problem. A nonprofit only needs to show in its financial disclosures that money was received and spent — and really only needs to justify where the money came from if it was a state or federal funding source.
Give to government and there can be questions about quid pro quo. Was there an expectation that giving money for one project means the donor’s property will be protected in zoning or services will be used for a contract? There are very real reasons to keep a name quiet — and some of them are a bit sketchy.
But Pennsylvania being Pennsylvania, there always seems to be a way to pull a curtain over transparency. According to Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, anonymous donations are an exception to the state Right to Know Law — as long as they are from individuals, not businesses.
That’s why the Erie Times-News was able to press for information on a $100,000 donation to the Erie Bureau of Police in 2019. The donation for new motorcycles for the department came from Erie Insurance. The company issued a statement and the city provided copies of the two checks that constituted the grant.
The issue comes up now as Ligonier Valley Police Commission is considering a $2 million police station project for the department that covers Ligonier Township and Ligonier Borough.
The idea of the new station — better positioned to improve response times and better designed for safety — is sound. But the proposal includes a $1.8 million anonymous donation to cover the lion’s share of the cost.
This is not an art museum or hospital equipment. This is law enforcement, and people have a right to know who paid for the police station in case that person becomes involved in a case that isn’t prosecuted. With an anonymous donation, that won’t happen.
There is a reason campaign contributions are public. There is a reason Pennsylvania should have a gift ban for state legislators — and a reason, despite repeated demands, there isn’t one.
Likewise, there is a reason there shouldn’t be a loophole in the Right to Know Law allowing individuals to give money to government behind a veil of secrecy.