The Pennsylvania Policy Database Project

1
The Pennsylvania Policy Database Project

• CSG Eastern Division
• July 31, 2006

2
The Pennsylvania Policy Database Project

• The Pennsylvania Project Database Design
• Background on the National Policy Agendas Project
• Advantages of the National Database Over Other
  Archives
• The PA Project Compared to the National Project
• The Pennsylvania Project Organization
• Internet Demonstration

3
The National Policy Agendas Project

• The national project was designed by political
  scientists Frank R. Baumgartner of Penn State and
  Bryan D. Jones of the University of Washington.
• Housed at the University of Washington, the
  project has been constructed and funded over the
  last 15 years with support from the National
  Science Foundation.
• The database allows users to integrate with a few
  mouse clicks a wide range of US government
  records, news media accounts, and public opinion
  data all coded by more than 200 major and minor
  policy topics from 1947 to the present.

4
Advantages of the National Project

• The national project is a unique database that
  allows systematic study of policy development
  over long periods of time and across venues and
  governments.
• Government archives are generally organized to
  maximize information retrieval, an important
  function. Records are indexed in multiple
  categories and depend heavily on key-word search.
• But as a result, they are not organized into
  consistent categories over time, making it
  difficult to fully understand the reasons for
  change and to recognize important patterns and
  trends. Language changes can fool key-word
  search strategies.

5
Advantages of the National Project

• Comparability Over Time. The database is not
  fooled by changes in the organization of
  government agencies, legislative operations
  (e.g., the number or names of committees),
  budgets, or the language of law or policy.
• Mutually Exclusive Categories. The database
  files each record in a single category but also
  refers researchers to related categories and
  original documents. It avoids double-counting
  policy activity.
• Comparability Across Venues. The database allows
  researchers to trace policy activity across
  venues (committee hearings, legislation,
  executive orders, court decisions, budgets, news
  accounts, public opinion polling) and
  governments.

6
Comparability Across Governments

• Researchers are now constructing projects with
  similar codebooks, datasets, and decision-rules
  for the following governments
• US (The National Project) Canada
• European Union England
• France Belgium
• Denmark Pennsylvania
• Other States?

7
Comparability Across Data Sets

• US (1947-2004)
• Congressional Hearings
• Public Laws
• Executive Orders
• State of the Union Addresses
• US Supreme Court Decisions
• Federal Budgets
• New York Times
• Congressional Quarterly
• Gallup Polls

• PA (1979-2004)
• Legislative Hearings
• Acts and Bills Introduced
• Executive Orders
• Governors Budget Addresses
• PA Supreme Court Decisions
• State Budgets
• Governors News Digests
• Governing Magazine
• State Polls

8
Some Differences in Data Sets

• The text and history of US statutes is not
  directly accessible through the national database
  website.
• The text and history of all PA acts and bills
  will be accessible on line through links in the
  PA database.
• The national project abstracts a sample of New
  York Times stories, many of which are not about
  public policy.
• The PA database abstracts a sample of stories
  from newspapers, wire services, and television
  and radio states across the state that were
  included in the daily news digests published by
  the governors press offices.

9
The National Policy Codebook

• 1 Macroeconomics
• 2 Civil Rights, Liberties
• 3 Health
• 4 Agriculture
• 5 Labor, Employment, Immigration
• 6 Education
• 7 Environment
• 8 Energy
• 10 Transportation
• 12 Law, Crime, Family

• 13 Social Welfare
• 14 Community Development
• 16 Defense
• 17 Space, Science, Technology, Communications
• 18 Foreign Trade
• 19 International Affairs
• 20 Govt. Operations
• 24 State and Local Administration

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The Pennsylvania Policy Codebook

• All major topic codes are the same, but with some
  wording changes.
• 1 Fiscal and Economic Issues (not Macroeconomics)
• 20 State Government Operations (not Government
  Operations)
• 24 Local Government and Governance (not State
  and Local Administration)

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The Pennsylvania Policy CodebookExamples of New
Minor Topics

• 1212 Probate and Estate Law
• 1213 Property and Real Estate Law
• 1214 State Tort Law and Tort Law Reform
• 1527 Regulation of Services
• Under Major Topic 24, Local Government and
  Governance
• 2401 Counties
• 2402 Municipalities
• 2403 Special Districts (except school districts)
• 2404 Governance of Multi-Purpose Special
  Districts, Agencies, or Areas
• 2404 Local Tax and Revenue Policies

12
The Pennsylvania Policy CodebookFilters for
Cross-Cutting Dimensions

• The US and PA projects code data by policy
  impact, not government structure. A bill giving
  veterans a tax break is coded 1609, veterans
  issues, not 107, state taxation.
• In determining a code, students are trained to
  ask, Who is this bill trying to help, not what
  government agency or legislative committee will
  oversee this policy.
• But the PA database has filters to further
  identify important cross-cutting structural and
  constituency dimensions.

13
The Pennsylvania Policy CodebookFilters for
Cross-Cutting Dimensions

• These are the filters now being applied to
  abstracts of bills, resolutions, hearings, and
  news articles
• Tax (does the bill create or change a tax)
• Appropriations (does the bill contain an
  appropriation)
• Governance (does the bill create a new agency or
  change the structure or powers of governments)
• Elderly (does the bill have provisions affecting
  senior citizens)
• Commemorative (does the bill or resolution confer
  an honor, such as naming a facility after a
  famous person)

14
Examples of Filters for Cross-Cutting Dimensions

• A bill giving veterans a tax break would be coded
  1609 for veterans issues, but the tax filter
  would be checked to indicate that it contained a
  tax change.
• A bill changing the governing board of a mass
  transit authority would be coded 1001, mass
  transportation, not 2403, special districts, but
  the governance filter would be checked to
  indicate a change in the authoritys structure.
• Sometimes structure is the cross-cutting policy
  issue. A bill affecting all special districts
  would be coded 2403.

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The PA Database Legislative History

• The database will aggregate all bills and
  resolutions by policy topic, along with the
  following information
• Party of prime sponsor
• Primary and secondary committees in each chamber
• Progress on the floor of each chamber
• Whether enacted, and if so, act number
• Whether vetoed, and if so, whether overridden
• In addition to aggregate information, the
  database will provide researchers with a link to
  the full text and history of each bill as
  displayed on the state website.

16
Hypothetical Example of Database Output

• In 2003-04, 401 House bills affecting local taxes
  were introduced, 195 by Democrats and 206 by
  Republicans.
• Committee referrals (and reports) were Finance
  250 (9 reported) Education 105 (3), Local
  Government 56 (2).
• 295 of the bills had provisions for the elderly
  36 affected school district governance 8 had an
  appropriation.
• Transcripts are available for 20 hearings on the
  bills.
• 8 bills were passed and 1 defeated by the House.
• 7 of the bills were passed by the Senate.
• 6 of the bills reached the governor and became
  acts.

17
Hypothetical Example of Database Output Continued

• In his budget message for 2003-04, the governor
  devoted 4 paragraphs to the need property tax
  relief
• 15 percent of articles in the governors news
  digest were about property taxes many were
  editorials in support calling on the state to
  fund tax relief.
• 27 percent of the public identified property tax
  relief as the most important issue facing
  Pennsylvania
• The PA Supreme Court ruled that current state
  school funding did not violate the constitution.

18
Hypothetical ExampleProperty Tax Policy-Making
Over Time
19
The US and PA Budget Codebooks

• The national project presents federal budget
  authority in real and nominal dollars for more
  than 70 OMB policy categories that are consistent
  over time (back to 1947).
• The Pennsylvania project will begin work on state
  budgets this fall with a similar goal of
  restating state spending in real and nominal
  dollars back to 1979.
• The Pennsylvania project may also provide users
  with the ability to quickly detect differences
  between the governors proposed budget and the
  enacted budget.

20
Organization of the PA Project

• The project has been funded by the Pennsylvania
  General Assembly. The plan is to complete
  construction of the database for the years
  1979-2006 by the end of 2007 and provide an
  accessible website by 2008.
• The project is guided by three advisory
  committees
• A bipartisan General Assembly Advisory Committee
• A University Advisory Committee
• A Committee of Directors of Legislative Service
  Agencies and State Record Centers

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Six Universities Participate in the PA Project

• Temple University College of Liberal Arts
  (project headquarters)
• The Graduate School of Public and International
  Affairs, University of Pittsburgh
• The Heinz School of Public Policy and Management,
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Penn State University, University Park
• Penn State University, Harrisburg
• The Fels Institute of Government, University of
  Pennsylvania.

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Project Direction

• Each university team is led by a faculty member
  who administers grant funds and provides general
  oversight.
• Each university team also has a graduate research
  manager (GRM) who provides day-to-day direction
  to student researchers, is responsible for
  quality control, and maintains communication with
  the Temple staff.
• Each university team includes 4 to 6 researchers
  who abstract and code records by policy area. A
  total of 27 GRMs and researchers are working this
  summer.

23
Processing Records

• Student researchers abstract bills, resolutions,
  hearings, and news articles. Students do not
  apply policy codes to records for which they
  created the abstract.
• Using the policy codebook but working separately,
  two different students then code each record.
  The goal is to achieve 90 inter-coder
  reliability for major topics and 75 for minor
  topics.
• The graduate research manager checks student
  work and resolves differences in coding. The GRM
  meets with researchers each week to go over their
  work and discuss hard cases.

24
University Assignments

• Although the decentralized organization of the
  project presents challenges, it also has
  advantages.
• Governors news digests are not centrally
  archived.
• Governor Dick Thornburghs news digests (1979-86)
  are at the University of Pittsburgh.
• Governor Robert P. Caseys news digests (1987-94)
  are at Penn States University Park Campus.
• News digests for the period 1995-2006 are
  archived in the Capitol complex in Harrisburg.

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Benefits to State Government

• Policy-makers and aides can more efficiently
  research recurring issues and previously-tried
  solutions.
• Integration of government records, news accounts,
  and opinion data should facilitate fuller
  insights into the underlying causes and politics
  of issues.
• Comparability with national database should
  facilitate deeper understanding of the
  inter-relationship of federal and state policies.

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Benefits to State Government

• The project is consistent with public demands for
  increased transparency in government.
• It provides staffers and archivists with a new
  tool to respond to public inquiries.
• The project provides a centralized index to
  different kinds of state records that are housed
  in decentralized archives, and it provides
  incentives to upgrade record-keeping efforts.

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Benefits to Educators, Students, Researchers,
Journalists, and the Public

• Provides journalists, the public, and university
  teachers, researchers, and students with free,
  web-based tools to better understand and analyze
  state politics and policies.
• Should also be useful to teachers and researchers
  interested in federalism, public policy
  development, legislative politics, urban
  politics, local government, and comparative
  politics (the comparison of political and
  policies across national and sub-national
  governments).
• Could attract talented students into careers in
  state government (also a benefit to the state).