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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Friday, January 18, 2013

Bob Freeman: Keep Lottery Here

Which of these two just won the lottery?
Plans to privatize the Pennsylvania State Lottery system are being questioned by State Rep. Bob Freeman. He joined over 45 Democratic State House colleagues at a Capitol news conference this week to reiterate their concern about the governor's quick decision to award the management of the state lottery to a private firm based in the United Kingdom.

The Pennsylvania Lottery was first established in 1971. It funds older Pennsylvanians with the Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program, free and reduced-fare transit; low-cost prescription drug programs known as PACE and PACENET, long-term living services as well as 53 area agencies on aging and senior centers throughout the state. But Governor Corbett has stated that privatization will give him another $50 million for these programs.

Freeman is unswayed.

"There is no need to privatize the lottery," Freeman said. "The Pennsylvania Lottery is the most successful state lottery in the nation. With profits of $1 billion, that funding goes directly to programs for senior citizens. It has increased profits substantially in the last few years and has proven to be a well-maintained program.

"The expansion that Camelot, the private management firm, promises to develop is something that can be handled in-house. We don't need to divert funding from programs for Pennsylvania seniors to hire a private management firm to tell us how to run the operation. Instead of wasting millions of dollars on consultants, let's make sure that money goes to benefit senior citizens directly.

"Beyond these concerns, there are others, such as the limited legislative oversight and the many unanswered questions that still remain with the governor's contract. This week's Senate committee meeting was lacking in answers. I hope these items can be addressed when the House Aging and Older Adult Services Committee explores the privatization plan next week," Freeman said.

Inky columnist John Baer has questioned why Governor Corbett would want to fix something that isn't broken.

8 comments:

Bill Coker said...

Did Corbett and King Ed go to the same school?

Anonymous said...



BAD IDEA FOR PENNA. Corbett must sit around and think-up DUMB IDEA's!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Please clarify the existence of Bob Freeman. It's suspected that he died several years ago and continues to collect a check.

If Bob says keep it here, we should definitely privatize. He's the state-of-the-art idiotic reverse barometer when it comes to fiscal soundness.

It's funny when Bob comes out of his coma every few years.

Anonymous said...

Why the governor wants to sell the lottery is beyond reason. Just ask college students how easy it is now to talk to someone in a foreign country about their school loans.

Anonymous said...

Someone wake up the Lehigh Valley Legislatures and have them pass House Bill 1839. This bill will correct deficiencies in the Property Tax and Rent Rebate Program. I was told by the leadership in Harrisburg that if they correct these deficiencies too many people will be eligibe for the program. So they screw people who should be entitled and give more money to the people currently in the program ($500. max is now $ 750.00). Give less and get more people into the program. Bernie jump on this.

Anonymous said...

The Republican philosophy is to prioritize everything possible. The proof is in the pudding.

Anonymous said...

That is a great picture to this article. P.S. - the Powerball is going off for at least $100 million this Saturday night. If I win, I might look exactly like that picture.

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