Brad Bumstead, the outstanding Harrisburg reporter for The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, has a must-read column about Gov. Ed Rendell's flawed scheme to bring casino gambling to the Keystone State.Rendell was in such a hurry to force the Legislature to pass casino gambling that he missed out on hundreds of millions of potential revenue from casinos. That revenue could have been used to reduce property taxes substantially instead of the average $190 that homeowners can expect to see later this year.
"Never mind that Rendell could have vetoed this monstrosity in 2004; he was far too hungry to get slots up and running," Bumstead writes. "Using slots revenue for property tax cuts was the linchpin of his 2002 campaign and his 2006 re-election."
Rendell practically gave the casino licenses away instead of offering them to the highest bidder, Bumstead argues. While casino owners stand to make billions in revenue, Pennsylvania property owners will get back pennies.
Read "The great slots heist" here.
Also check out an earlier Bumstead column, "Pa. Gaming Board is a bad joke."
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