Before he left the House speaker’s position, Rep. Bryan Cutler transferred $51.5 million from accounts he controlled in that office to the Republican leadership account.
Democrats are crying foul. But Cutler said it was money that belonged to the GOP.
That is the latest twist in the ongoing dispute over who holds majority control in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
This argument over money erupted on Tuesday as Democrats shared a letter Cutler, R-Lancaster County, sent to the House comptroller requesting the transfer of money to accounts that, as Republican leader, he controls. The letter was dated Nov. 22, eight days before his speakership concluded.
Democrats noted it also was after the Nov. 8 election that saw Democrats win 102 seats to the Republicans’ 101 — although one of those Democrats, Allegheny County Rep. Anthony DeLuca, died before the election.
“Rep. Cutler took this irresponsible action only after learning the results of the November election,” said House Democratic spokeswoman Nicole Reigelman. She claims it was “meant to be an intentional setback for the House Democratic Caucus, and in turn the body as a whole.”
Cutler, who held an impromptu news conference, accused Democrats of prematurely laying claim to the speakership before the Jan. 3 vote to elect a member to that post. (Two Democrats resigned Dec. 7 to prepare for moves to higher office, reducing their ranks to 98 to Republicans’ 101 voting members.)
As for the transferred funds, Cutler said adamantly, “those monies that were moved were Republican Caucus monies, period. And any allegations to the contrary are simply not accurate.”
He said the reserves built up under GOP control were a result of its good money management and having more than 100 fewer employees than the Democratic caucus.
Cutler said he left half of the $1.7 million appropriated to the speaker’s office this year in the account for the next speaker. Reigelman said he also left $37,257 in a separate speaker contingency account.
But he transferred to his GOP leadership account more than $10 million in reserve funds in the accounts associated with the speaker’s office, which Reigelman said is “meant to be an independent leader of the chamber, not of one party.”
Cutler said the speaker’s accounts, over which both the speaker and the majority leader had control, were used to make institutional upgrades, such as improving the voting boards in the House chamber. Some money went to make grants that were doled out to both caucuses to pay for improved security at district offices, he said.
Cutler also transferred to the GOP leadership account more than $41 million appropriated to the Legislative Data Processing Center, which Reigelman argued supports the operations of the entire chamber. She said during the 12 years the House has been under GOP control, the Republicans not only took a larger share of that appropriation but also granted themselves authority to transfer these unspent funds to accounts solely for the Republican caucus’ use.
The end result, she said, is it leaves the new speaker “with no reserves and a limited operating budget” for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Cutler said, “any assertion or claims to that money that somehow is Democratic speaker money simply is not accurate. We left the speaker money, though, that was allocated.”
Democrats have made it clear their choice for speaker for the next session is Rep. Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia. Republicans have not indicated who they will support for the position but insiders suggest it is likely to a female senior member, ensuring whoever wins that post becomes the first woman in Pennsylvania history to hold it.
