Maybe we spoke too soon about that serious case of fiscal sanity breaking out in Harrisburg.
After all, Pennsylvania is still staring a a deficit that most experts now say is north of a cool billion dollars. And the red ink continues to flow at the state's two large public employee pension plans, a crisis that continues to threaten every school in the Commonwealth.
So how are our elected leaders looking to remedy this "dicey" situation?
Yep, you guess it.
They're rolling the dice on more legalized gambling.
This is almost predictable as the Phils' offense.
Yesterday the House backed a measure that would push legal gaming onto the internet as well as airports. For you modest folks out there, you will be happy to know they rejected a move to also alow casino-style gaming in local taverns. No doubt that will be music to the ears of the folks down at Harrah's in Chester, as well as county officials.
When this proposal first aired a couple of weeks ago, they called a press conference to condemn the proposal, saying the city of Chester and county would lose money - rooted in legal gaming inside the Chester gambling mecca.
You can get all the details here.
All of this is part of that annual summer tradition - the mad dash to put a state spending plan in place in Harrisburg.
The measure could come up for a vote in the Senate as early as today.
So what are the chances that Pennsylvania actually gets a spending plan in place by the July 1 deadline?
Maybe the state should be taking bets on that.
Comments