Tell Shapiro to Stop the Secrecy!

Gov. Josh Shapiro and his administration have actively worked hide his shady behavior from Pennsylvanians. During his first term as governor, Shapiro abused taxpayer funds to finance luxury accommodations for his residence, excessive out-of-state travel, and shameless self-promotion, especially as he pursues his political ambitions that extend beyond Harrisburg. Plus, the governor has refused to share his daily schedule, ignored his own “gift ban” policies, and undermined the basic principles of government accountability and transparency.

Scroll down to view Shapiro’s shady actions.

Shapiro’s Shady Actions in 2026

Shapiro is entangled in a bizarre property dispute with his neighbors in Montgomery County. In a federal lawsuit, his neighbors allege that the governor illegally seized about 3,000 square feet of their yard after his attempts to buy the property fell through. The lawsuit details Shapiro’s “outrageous abuse of power,” including Pennsylvania State Police patrolling the property and blocking his neighbors’ access to it.
Shapiro often spends tax dollars on luxury travel. An open-records request by Center Square found that the governor spent $1,700 in taxpayer dollars for three nights of high-end hotels and meals. Claiming the travel was for “official business,” Shapiro used the funds to speak at a Pittsburgh parade and attend former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral.
Shapiro spent more than $1 million on security upgrades for his private home in Montgomery County. The Pennsylvania Treasury Department questioned whether state procurement and ethics rules permit the use of public funds for non-state-owned properties. Shapiro hasn’t released full details about the exact expenses.
The Shapiro administration fought to keep state employees’ use of AI chatbots from being available for public records requests. Reporting uncovered queries linked to Shapiro’s housing plan, which scraped and copied language from a report by the Center for American Progress.
Following his brief and embittered time as a potential Vice Presidential nominee, Shapiro criticized the Biden-Harris administration for its inability to “get stuff done.” “The Biden-Harris administration didn’t provide those specific tangible things that people could see or feel,” Shapiro said during a podcast interview. The governor specifically criticized the administration’s failure to expand high-speed broadband, neglecting to mention his own administration’s shortcomings on the issue in the commonwealth.

Shapiro’s Shady Actions in 2025

While it’s essential to protect the governor and his family, the process and price tag for recent security upgrades to the Governor’s Mansion and Josh Shapiro’s personal home raise serious questions. The reported $14 million fence and other planned expenses come in far above market rates for comparable projects. And it’s been reported that construction work began before Shapiro sought an official ethics opinion about the propriety of using taxpayer money to pay for the upgrades. Taxpayers deserve answers: Were no-bid contracts issued? Who received the work, and do they have ties to political donors or lobbyists? Why is the administration resisting scrutiny over inflated costs? These are questions that can be addressed without compromising security—but unfortunately, the Shapiro administration has chosen secrecy over accountability.
No transparency with Governor Shapiro’s mansion restoration fund? Big-dollar donors are funding repairs to the Governor’s Mansion, but their identities remain undisclosed. Team PA, the nonprofit overseeing the fund, has also kept secret who is raising and managing the money. This lack of transparency extends to other Team PA activities, such as paying for Shapiro’s attendance at major sporting events, including the 2023 Super Bowl, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest with state government and policy influence.
Fore! In June, Shapiro attended the U.S. Open at the Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh. When asked by a reporter who paid for his attendance, Shapiro’s spokesperson did not respond. Team PA, the nonprofit that frequently pays for his tickets, said they did not. Shapiro’s administration awarded $2.43 million in corporate welfare to the United States Golf Association in 2023 to have both the men’s and women’s tournaments in Pennsylvania.
Is he trying to be a podcaster? In April, Shapiro released an interview he conducted with Philadelphia Eagles Defensive Coordinator Vic Frangio, which appeared to be recorded using taxpayer resources, filmed at the Capitol, and released via official state government channels.
Shapiro attended Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on Team PA’s dime. Despite campaigning heavily on transparency, Shapiro continues to accept sporting event tickets — $12,000 just in 2023 from Team PA Foundation, which receives its funding from undisclosed donors.
Shapiro held a press conference in March of 2025 announcing his decision to give fired federal workers hiring preference for state jobs. These workers were not the highest-performing employees, yet Governor Shapiro calls them the best and brightest.

Shapiro’s Shady Actions in 2024

In apparent violation of his administration’s gift ban, the governor obtained tickets to a Villanova University basketball game and a football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The tickets were purchased by Team PA or with campaign funds. Shapiro regularly accepts tickets from people or groups seeking government contracts or financial relationships with the Commonwealth.
Governor Shapiro’s executive order to implement “automatic voter registration (AVR)” when a resident renews their driver’s license was covertly extended to vehicle registration forms. In at least one case, a voter’s registration was erroneously changed to an address where he didn’t live. The lack of transparency from the administration is jeopardizing the integrity of voter rolls.
Governor Shapiro spent more than $92,000 in taxpayer funds upgrading the Governor’s Mansion, including questionable purchases of a $4,500 massaging couch and $6,600 for TVs. Staff urged merchants to keep quiet about the purchases.
Governor Shapiro allowed his signature to be used on mailers guiding people to request mail-in ballots through Vote.pa—a URL that closely resembles the official state voter registration website of vote.pa.gov but also surreptitiously collects user data for leftist political campaign purposes.
Shapiro racked up $270,000 in taxpayer-funded air travel costs in his first year in office—far more than even his predecessor Tom Wolf’s busiest travel year, which cost taxpayers $136,000 in 2018.
Shapiro’s budget address venue cost taxpayers $41,500, a heftier price tag than is usual for PA budget addresses. This was the first time the venue—the Pennsylvania Capital Rotunda—was used for the budget address.
The Shapiro administration has actively blocked efforts to reveal why the governor’s office spent more than $350,000 in taxpayer dollars to hire private law firms. In response to a public records request first filed when Tom Wolf was governor, the Office of General Counsel released heavily redacted invoices that obscured why the money was spent. A Commonwealth Court panel has now ruled that the governor’s office must remove some of the redactions.
Gov. Shapiro hosted and spoke at a taxpayer-funded “Democracy Summer Camp” in Philadelphia for around 50 digital content creators. One attendee said it was “about how to promote the election this November [and] talk about how we can combat misinformation.” The administration did not disclose the agenda, presenters, participants, how much the day-long event cost, or where the funding came from.

Shapiro’s Shady Actions of 2023

Shapiro required his transition team and inauguration team to sign a nondisclosure agreement barring them from publicly discussing their activities.
Unlike his predecessors, Shapiro refused to disclose donors to the nonprofit organizations set up for his inauguration party and transition team.
Shapiro exploited loopholes in campaign finance laws. The governor used campaign funds to attend a sold-out Sixers game with one of his largest campaign donors. He circumvented requirements to disclose the cost of the tickets or who paid for the tickets.
Unlike his Democrat predecessor, Tom Wolf, Shapiro does not make his daily calendar available to the public.
After campaigning on more education options for families, our governor line-item vetoed Lifeline Scholarships, referred to as the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS), the very program he pledged to support and the top budget priority of the state Senate, creating a months-long budget stalemate.
The Shapiro administration removed an online database of state employee emails, claiming they posed a cybersecurity risk.
The governor refused to release a state-maintained database of certified police officers. The request came from a national coalition of newsrooms seeking more information to help hold law enforcement accountable.
Shapiro unilaterally canceled a multi-million dollar, 27-year-old contract with Real Alternatives to fund 83 social service centers across the state..
Shapiro negotiated in secret with one of his largest campaign contributors on new labor union contracts with a 22 percent salary increase.
For five months, the governor kept his “Climate Change Working Group” completely secret. The group met privately, without keeping public minutes, then at the end of September, Shapiro released the names of the working group members along with an inconclusive four-page memo.
In September, the governor moved to circumvent the law and undermine the Pennsylvania Constitution by shortchanging the commonwealth’s Rainy Day Fund. Instead of transferring the approximately $900 million required by existing law, Secretary of the Budget Uri Monson announced he will only transfer $412 million.
Two days before Thanksgiving, Gov. Shapiro announced he will use taxpayer resources to fight for a carbon tax (known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative) in court. The carbon tax will cost Pennsylvanians an estimated $800 million in electricity bills and undermine the reliability of our electrical grid. Shapiro is quietly embracing his predecessor’s radical policy. About one year earlier, Shapiro told voters, “I have real concerns about the impact [RGGI] will have on consumer prices, hurting families.”
Gov. Shapiro plans to continue accepting free tickets to high-profile sporting events from Team Pennsylvania despite concerns that it violates his own gift ban. Team PA is a nonprofit backed by large corporations, health systems, and unions, including Shell, Penn State Health, Deloitte, APSCUF State Office, and IBEW District 3.