When Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane ruled that Gov. Tom Corbett’s contract for private management of the state lottery was illegal, proponents of privatization shot back that Kane’s decision meant a loss of an additional $50 million for senior services.
Advocates said that having a private company running the lottery would increase receipts and eliminate growing waiting lists for senior services, which, by law, are supported by a percentage of lottery funds.
“We will use this new money to address the need and demand for our programs,” Corbett said in a January press release announcing a contract with Camelot Global Services PA. “Specifically, I propose to use it for home and community-based services so that older adults may continue to live in their homes.”
“Additional increases in revenue would help decrease the waiting list of 5,400 older adults who are waiting for home support and personal care services to keep them in their homes,” the statement continued.
But the waiting lists are growing because the state itself has been funneling existing lottery funds away from the senior programs it has pledged to support. The funding shift, which began long before attempts to privatize, is something Corbett left out of his public comments about the topic.
Read the entire story at the website of our partner PublicSource.
