Taxpayers Lose without Lottery Deal

Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced today she would not sign off on a contract with a private manager for the Pennsylvania lottery.

The real losers from this decision are seniors and taxpayers who just lost billions in guaranteed income. The result will be fewer dollars for senior programs and higher taxes on working Pennsylvanians.

As Yogi Berra said, this is deja vu all over again. In 2008, Pennsylvania lost the opportunity to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The result? Instead of having nearly $13 billion in the bank for our transportation infrastructure (as well as limits on toll increases of 2.5 percent), the Turnpike Commission is more than $8 billion in debt with guaranteed toll increases of 3-5 percent over the next 15 years.

Likewise, in losing the opportunity to contract out the management of the Pennsylvania Lottery, we've just lost more than $34 billion in guaranteed income, billions more than the Lottery will generate under current government management.

RELATED : TAXES & SPENDING, TURNPIKE, PRIVATIZATION