Forging ahead with privitization of Pa. Lottery regains some momentum
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The Corbett administration isn’t giving up on privatizing the Pennsylvania Lottery.This week’s decision to keep a bid alive through 2013 is accompanied by an announcement that the administration is now working with the legislature to forge ahead.
Republican state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi says the “recent” cooperation doesn’t mean there’s support in the Senate for the governor’s lottery privatization plan. That contract would expand lottery games to include Keno terminals and, eventually, online games.
It was rejected by the state attorney general earlier this year, and Pileggi says the underlying plan still hasn’t been vetted by the legislature.
“I think we need to understand how all the pieces fit together if we’re going to do a large-scale expansion of the state lottery system,” he said.
Pileggi says senators are also concerned about the possibility that lottery employees could lose their jobs.He says he’s been told the extension of a bid on the lottery will not mean consultants on the deal will receive any more money.
The Democratic state treasurer and auditor general have criticized the Corbett administration for paying consultants more than $3 million dollars to work on a privatization plan.
The lottery’s profits last year were more than $3.5 billion.
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