After Wasting $3.4 Million on Divisive and Flawed Lottery Privatization Plan, Gov. Corbett Now Says: Never Mind

McCord calls on Corbett to replenish wasted Lottery funds from his own budget

Harrisburg – More than a year after state Treasurer Rob McCord first questioned the legality of Gov. Corbett’s plan to privatize the Pennsylvania Lottery, Gov. Corbett today announced he is abandoning the proposal.

“I am grateful that Gov. Corbett has finally heeded my call to put an end to this unwise and unnecessary ideological quest,” said McCord. "All of us who care about seniors can be thankful that Gov. Corbett has pledged not to waste any more seniors’ money on a failed effort to appease ideologues by privatizing one of the most successful Lottery programs in the nation.

“But after breathing a sigh of relief, we now are left to ask: Where is the accountability?

"Gov. Corbett wasted $3.4 million of our seniors' moneys pursuing an initiative that he knew was illegal more than a year ago. While I’m proud to have been the first to say so, many others followed – most notably, our Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, whose brave ruling of unconstitutionality marked the beginning of the end of Gov. Corbett’s failed plan.

“Gov. Corbett fashions himself the champion of business. But in the business world I come from, there are consequences and accountability. If a chief executive stubbornly insists on trying something against all advice — and ends up wasting millions of dollars of investors’ money in the process — he is held accountable for that failure. But we got none of that from Gov. Corbett today. He wants us to be okay with him now saying, in essence, ‘Never mind.’ No acknowledgement that he has now officially wasted $3.4 million in Lottery money – money that could have generated 6,380 property tax rebates for our seniors. Or 151,975 prescription drugs for our seniors.

 “So maybe Gov. Corbett needs us once again to suggest the right thing to do. In his budget address in February, he should propose to transfer an additional $3.4 million from the Governor’s Executive Offices to the Lottery Fund to replenish the moneys he wasted. It would only take a 2% cut in his own budgets to right this wrong. I will be watching eagerly to see if the Governor will do the right thing."

For more information, visit www.patreasury.gov.

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Media contact: Michael Smith, 717-787-2465 or news@patreasury.gov

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