Rendell, Harley Davidson, and Lando

In Empire Strikes Back, Lando Calrissian tells his old friend Han Solo that “I’ve just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of here forever” before leading Han, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca to Darth Vader.  Later, Lando regrets the deal, noting it keeps getting worse all the time, as Vader keeps changing the terms of the agreement.  Later, in Return of the Jedi, Lando redeems himself by helping rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt.

Unfortunately, Pennsylvania has been duped just like Lando in the past, for instance, “making a deal” to keep Harley Davidson in York forever.  Pennsylvania awarded Harley over $4 million in taxpayer funds since 2000.  But unfortunately, Gov. Rendell is not a Star Wars fan, and has not learned the lesson of Lando Calrissian.

While Harley has threatened to move out of state again because of the high cost of doing business in Pennsylvania, Rendell could have moved to adopt business-friendly policies, and he should have realized that Harley Davidson was using him to leverage more corporate welfare (or perhaps to capture Luke Skywalker and convert him to the Dark Side).

Instead, Rendell has fallen prey for their ploy again, promising to deliver Harley Davidson “a package of offers to entice the motorcycle company to stay in Springettsbury Township.”  Rendell should know better by now, given the failure of his economic policies.