Letters: Continue to Make Your Voice Heard About Casino; Transparency Needed to End Cronyism in Harrisburg

WE can and WE will continue to voice our strong opposition to the casino

I’ve read our community’s 49 written comments posted on the gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov website. One of the most important comments included there is “Please listen to us!”

It’s great to see our community’s opposition to the proposed casino. I applaud the local media coverage of the public input hearing and the detailed inclusion of views presented by both the supporters and opponents of the casino.

The supporters of the casino likely don’t want you to know this, but you can still email your input about the casino directly to the PGCB regardless of the previous deadline for submitting them prior to the hearing. Please watch the final two minutes of the August 16 hearing video that’s posted on the PGCB’s website to confirm that.  You can email your input directly to boardclerk@pa.gov.  On the PGCB website you can also view the post-hearing community feedback posted earlier this year about the Parx Casino in Shippensburg. I’m sure you’ll find that especially interesting since Shippensburg is also a college town.

The PGCB won’t be making their final decision on the proposed casino’s application until just after the second public hearing in Harrisburg planned for later this year.

Please send your input soon to the PGCB requesting they deny the application for the casino planned in Centre County. I’m confident they’ll listen to us. Please let them know!

Daniel Materna
Howard

Transparency Is Necessary to End Corporate Cronyism

I want to thank state Sen. Jake Corman for pushing for transparency with expenditures within the Senate. It only took him over 20 years of being in office to accomplish this feat.

In that 20+ years he’s wracked up a lot that he needs to be transparent about, such as his ties to an organization called Growth and Opportunity Fund Inc., operated by his campaign manager Ray Zaborney, who doubles as a lobbyist. He should fully disclose all of the support he gets from corporate PACs, including the fossil fuel companies and telecommunication companies in his pocket. He should share all of his campaign expenditures to highlight the thousands spent on “gifts”. He should be transparent with all of the gifts he has received as a member of the Corman Dynasty.

If Corman is serious about transparency, he must disclose all of his financial involvements relating to politics, not just his expenditures. But he won’t do this.

Corporate PAC money and gifts need to be banned from our state to prevent politicians from being bought. There needs to be a freeze on legislators becoming lobbyists to eliminate industry favoritism. There needs to be actual substantive anti-corruption legislation in Harrisburg that prevents corporate cronyism, industry favoritism and an unwillingness to commit to constituents and their interests.

Corman can’t commit to what is needed to substantively drain the swamp because it favors him. To my knowledge, his seat is meant for the people, people like you and me, not for corporate cronyism.

Robert Zeigler
Millheim