Per publicly available data provided to us by the nonprofit organization Transparency USA,
these are the top contributors to the PA Economic Growth PAC in the 2024 cycle:
Top Contributors:
The top contributor listed here is Kristin Rohrbaugh. She is on the board of PA Economic Growth PAC and runs the marketing firm Rohr + Design. Many PAEGP-endorsed candidates hire her to run their websites and advertising strategies. Owners and partners in property management, building and consulting firms also top the list and help run PAEGP. These firms are active in York County and the surrounding region.
Millionaire venture capitalist Paul Martino.
Why are they throwing so much money into local school board races? Do they believe underfunded schools will be better for their communities? Perhaps they think students will thrive when PAEGP candidates vilify and harass teachers? Or do they think the best library is an empty library, or a library they’ve screened themselves? Seems like they do.
Do they also hope that friendly board members will hire their firms to build new facilities? Do they want more special tax breaks on their companies’ construction projects? These corporate tax breaks put higher tax burdens on individual homeowners and families. Does PAEGP care?
Billionaire, gambler and MAGA investor Jeffrey Yass.
PAEGP’s school board campaigns connect to a larger effort across the state. In prior years, some of PA’s richest men donated large sums to PAEGP and its candidates. In some cases, they did this by using other PACs as intermediaries. PA Economic Growth PAC’s past receipts reportedly include funds from Pennsylvania’s richest man, Jeffrey Yass, who uses his $60 billion net worth to elect pro-charter, pro-voucher candidates. Mr. Yass directly and indirectly PACs like the Commonwealth Children’s Choice Fund, Students First PAC, and Citizens Alliance of PA down to local committees like PAEGP and others throughout Pennsylvania. One thing you start to see when looking into this is how rich donor money moves back and forth between these PACs as part of a complex web of influence. It is, in a word, gross.
One prominent example is that of PAEGP’s own education director. We are talking about ousted, disgraced former school board member Veronica Gemma. She lost her seat in 2021 after banning more books than any school board in American history. She spent her campaign defending and denying that ban. She also found time for her other hobbies, which included pushing COVID conspiracies and opening an account on the QAnon-friendly social media platform Parler. PAC donations to Gemma’s losing campaign link directly to venture capitalist and extremist Paul Martino. Through PACs like Back to School, Martino and allies work to weaken public schools and promote charter schools and voucher programs.
Veronica Gemma, PAEGP’s Education Director
and Central York’s most “ex” ex-board member.
PAEGP attracts these donations for a few key reasons. Its candidates are perfectly willing to weaken public education in PA. They want to under-fund schools, paint teachers as enemies, and bully students who don’t conform to their ideas of what’s normal. They also hope and expect these candidates will keep their taxes low and even provide them special tax breaks – breaks that will leave the remaining cost of running schools up to area taxpayers. All of it, they know, will lead to failing public schools and bolster the case for private charter academies. Who own and manage those charter schools, and will profit from the downfall of our schools? You guessed it – more friends of Veronica Gemma, Paul Martino, Jeffrey Yass, and the PA Economic Growth PAC.
It’s Gross.
To see the full report from TransparencyUSA, click here:
To see more data about PAEGP and other campaign finance information from across PA and the United States, visit transparencyusa.org.