Back in 2010, it was a significant possibility that the state’s capital city, Harrisburg, would be contemplating municipal bankruptcy.  The issue was tied to an incinerator and an independent municipal authority.  Harrisburg was declared in Act 47 financial distress at the end of 2010.

Legislation passed unanimously by the Senate is aimed at cleaning up some of the borrowings made by related authorities (the co-sponsorship memo on the bill states “…proceeds from borrowing under the Local Government Unit Debt Act shall not be used for any purpose unrelated to the project for which the debt was incurred, nor placed in any account used by the authority or any other local government unit for any unrelated purpose”) and extending some of the enforcement mechanisms of the Ethics Act to the Municipal Authorities Act.