Its been nearly a month since the state Senate voted through a revenue plan that would fund the state budgetif the House agrees to it.

But Harrisburg watchdogs are still poring over it to figure out where money is going.

The right-leaning Commonwealth Foundation has released a report detailing instances where senators slipped spending into a bill meant to fund the budget.

All told, the chambers fiscal code bill includes $65 million thats split up among several dozen groups deemed worthy of the money.

The process is colloquially called earmarking.

Commonwealth Foundation Director Nathan Benefield said recipientslike hospitals, schools, or townsare hard to determine, because they arent listed by name.

It says like, well this is open to any organization thats in a third-class county, in a second-class city, with a population of 35,000, Benefield said. And its only one organization that fits that definition.

The foundation is on a multi-year quest to make so-called earmarks more transparent. Benefield said this year, they spent several weeks studying the fiscal code and still werent totally able to figure out where all the earmarked money was going.

He added, putting spending into the fiscal code makes it easier to use taxpayer dollars as political collateral.

Lawmakers who vote the right way or vote the way leadership wants them to are going to get earmarks in their districtand those earmarks are traded, basically, for votes on legislation, he said.

Lawmakers have defended their freedom to have some discretionary spending. And Senate GOP spokeswoman Jenn Kocher noted, the process for allocating the money isnt without oversight measures.

People have to make applications for them, they have to go through and publicly apply and fulfill all the requirements from the specific departments from which theyre receiving the money, she said.

The Commonwealth Foundation wants the earmarks to be itemized in the actual budget spending plan instead of the fiscal codesaying that would better-ensure the allocations are fair.

The Senate plans earmarks include money for certain state parks, community colleges, and autism services, among other things.

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Watchdogs Raise Concerns Over Budget 'Earmarks' | 90.5 WESA - 90.5 WESA