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PrintWithin the past week, the amount of revenues returned to the commonwealth from the play of legalized slots machines at Pennsylvania casinos, including The Meadows in Washington County, passed the $1 billion mark. This new revenue stream is delivering property tax relief, reinvigorating horse racing, funding grants for emergency services and police departments and providing the base funding for economic development projects.
The seven operating facilities contribute a combined $2.5 million a day in taxes to the commonwealth along with 5,500 living wage jobs and an additional 15,000 jobs through the hundreds of millions of dollars in construction. The employees of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board have worked hard to ensure that this industry meets the highest standards on the quality of persons permitted to work at the casinos and the safety of patrons.
Before employees and vendors can work at or do business with a slots facility, our Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement conducts deep background investigations. Of the 12,000 completed, more than 15 percent of those who applied for jobs at slot facilities have been denied due to our strict policing.
Also, each facility is monitored by our agency, the Pennsylvania State Police and sophisticated video surveillance systems. This has led to a minimal amount of criminal activity within the casinos.
Our agency is dedicated to a strict regulatory process that assures that these facilities remain safe, enjoyable and profitable. We are a leader in providing transparency into our endeavors and invite the public to visit our Web site at www.pgcb.state.pa.us and review the information and documents available.
MARY DiGIACOMO COLINS
Chairman
FRANK T. DONAGHUE
Acting Executive Director
Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board
Harrisburg
Casino conundrum
Considering the events that have ensnarled Don Barden and the building of the casino on the North Shore ("Builders Stop Casino Work: Barden Does Not Pay $10 Million, But Cuts Big Deal With Investor," July 1), if I were one of the other applicants for the rights to the casino, who were rejected not once but twice after appealing, I would say, "Told ya so."
Was the gaming commission so inept as to not see this down the road? Was it duped by Mr. Barden? And with everyone reaching their hands into Mr. Barden's pocket, will those to whom he has committed get their allowance?
I have to wonder just what were the facts the gaming commission saw that made it say, "Mr. Barden is the best candidate."
MICHAEL PAJEWSKI
Indiana Township
A bad bet?
Only in Pittsburgh can the authorities choose a casino developer who can't pay his bills. This is one of the most lucrative industries known to mankind. It's a fixed, rigged game! How can you lose?
Of all the potential suitors who are/were successful, wealthy firms, the one chosen for Pittsburgh can't pay its bills. If it wasn't so sad, it would be hilarious.
RODGER GURRENTZ
Murrysville
The payment norm
Buried deep in the June 26 front-page article "Barden Lags on Pay for Contractors" are comments by Richard Stanizzo, business manager of the Pittsburgh Building and Construction Trades Council.
While Mr. Stanizzo is correct in that all the contractors involved on the Majestic Star Casino project are financially sound and have paid their workers on a weekly basis, it is not "normal"; in fact, it is highly unusual that contractors work for six or eight weeks without getting paid. The "normal" and accepted industry practice is payment of invoices within 30 days of submittal.
PennDOT pays its contractors in 30 days, and the Pennsylvania Prompt Pay laws require payment within 30 days. We would not want any of our good construction industry clients to get any bad ideas.
JACK RAMAGE
Executive Director
Master Builders' Association of Western Pennsylvania Inc.
Green Tree
Give Roddey credit
The article "County, CCAC Partner to Match Workers to Jobs" (June 13) says Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Alex Johnson, president of Community College of Allegheny County, "announced creation of a work force partnership and scholarship for volunteer firefighters." Mr. Onorato is taking credit for this opportunity to help the local volunteer fire departments in the county.
In 2003, Jim Roddey, who was then county chief executive, announced the beginning of a scholarship program (FireVEST) to send local eligible students to CCAC. In return, they were to provide their sponsoring fire company with five years of service and obtain their fire fighter 1 certification after they completed their course of study. My son was one of the first and "only" seven to receive this scholarship. At the time the FireVEST was started, local fire departments were very happy because they felt it would help them grow in the future. However, something happened to this great idea. Only the first seven recipients ever received any benefits from the program.
My son completed his education at CCAC. He continues to give back to the community as an active volunteer firefighter. He honored his commitment to the program.
Just remember that Jim Roddey started it.
WESLEY S. SEMPLE SR.
Ross
Foster their talent
Regarding "No Child Left Behind May Be a Drag on the Gifted" (June 19): Reports such as the Fordham Institute's on "High-Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB" and "A Nation Deceived" from the Templeton Foundation are extremely important in that they emphasize the costs to our nation of neglecting the education of our most talented students.
If gifted students are not challenged in the classroom, they will not reach their full potential, and they will not learn the value and satisfaction that comes from working hard to be the best they can be. While this outcome is unfortunate on the individual level, the economic competitiveness of our nation will be severely reduced if the abilities of our best and brightest are not fostered and if they do not learn that they must work hard to achieve their goals.
These students can be future leaders in innovation and technology, but only if they are taught how to put their talents to use. Just as a talented budding athlete should be encouraged to play against the best competition, our best students at all levels should be encouraged to "play up" by giving them harder math problems, encouraging them to read more advanced books and enticing them to think about big, important questions from an early age.
While educational programs for gifted children may sometimes seem like a luxury because these kids are likely to do "fine" without them, as a nation we cannot afford to squander the talents of our highest-achieving children.
NATHAN URBAN
Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition
Carnegie Mellon University
Oakland
The system for those displaced from Mayview is inherently flawed
Currently plans are under way to accommodate the displaced population of Mayview State Hospital, which is slated to close. The sanity of these plans is questionable because of the inherent flaws in the system of recovery and community placement. The final dispersal is based on the assumption that the patients are able to participate in a successful passage on the road to recovery.
Some of the discharged patients understand that they are under no legal obligation to take their medication. Some believe they do not need medication. They can exercise their rights and their impaired judgment to refuse their consumer service plan. There are few consequences for noncompliance with outpatient treatment.
Unless the consumers become a definite threat to themselves or others or display a marked inability for self-care, only then will crisis or legal interventions be considered. Unfortunately these patients become casualties as victims or suicides and will cause fatalities.
The commonwealth will bypass responsibility by shifting funding to the involved counties and to human services companies. Roadside assistance -- mobile outreach services -- will be difficult to maintain on a 24-hour basis. The need for long-term hospitalization will continue to be downsized and detoured, driven by cost reduction and land usage development.
EUGENE ROBERTS
Donora
The writer is a retired employee of Mayview.
I agree with William Fisher's letter regarding our local government's need to step up the police presence in our communities ("City Taxpayers Deserve Remedies to the Violence," June 27). This is a topic among my neighbors as we sit outside and remember the days when there was a regular beat patrolman assigned to the hot corners and they had an ear and eye for what was happening in the neighborhood and the residents felt safe.
There were days when we looked forward to gathering at a neighbor's stoop to discuss what was going on in our lives, but today our cheery conversations have been muffled by the continuous chain of cars speeding up and down the street, loud music that shakes houses, cars that often stop in the middle of the street and block others from passing, the underlying illegal activities, large gatherings of boisterous and disrespectful people, and violence. The residents agree if a beat patrolman were to be assigned to corners such as these, this type of activity would decrease.
I realize that living in an urban setting is accompanied by a certain atmosphere, but when it falls outside of the "usual" atmosphere, the city should take action. Our community is lucky to have an organization (Manchester Citizens Corp.) that's actively involved in the safety of the community, but as citizens, they have limited powers. It's up to the mayor to hear their concerns and act accordingly. How long will the majority of residents in our communities have to suffer at the hands of a few?
BONITA LEE PENN
Manchester
Personal decision double-standards
I found it funny that the Post-Gazette ran an opinion poll June 13 about motorcyclists wearing helmets. The "No" line read, "Motorcyclists know the risk and should make their own decisions."
I am 36 years old and have been driving since my 18th birthday. All I see on television is advertisements stating that police are on the lookout for motorists who don't "click it" (referring to seat belts) -- "Click it or ticket."
It's not bad enough that I have to stop for random DUI checkpoints every major holiday, but now if I don't wear my seat belt, I get fined. Are the same people who brought us this communist-like law the same people who were intelligent and benevolent enough to give a motorcyclist the option of wearing a helmet?
I might just be stupid, but if I think that getting on a two-wheel vehicle that has no protection around it and can go 100 mph is a good idea, why can't I make up my own mind to wear protection when I am in a four-wheel vehicle with a ton of steel around it? Make that law for parents with children, but not for grown adults who "know the risk and should make their own decisions."
DREW MONARDO
Turtle Creek
Let's foster entrepreneurship
Recently I read "No Child Left Behind May Be a Drag on the Gifted" (June 19). I suggest a new system of evaluating schools. Entrepreneurs made Pittsburgh famous. There is a need for a new generation of entrepreneurs. A rating system could be used to evaluate schools on entrepreneurship education.
No Child Left Behind has forced education into relying on standardized testing. Colleges also rely on standardized tests. Standardized testing does not provide a complete picture of students' capabilities.
Schools in the Tri-State area could be rated on how many students are being prepared to be entrepreneurs. A five-star school would have 50 percent in training.
Anyone who graduates from high school, college or graduate school and is prepared only to be an employee is like someone hopping around on one foot. To have both feet on the ground, a student needs to be prepared to be both an employee and an entrepreneur. Then during the 30 or 40 years of working, he or she can move from being an employee to being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship can be taught across the curriculum and through the grades from kindergarten with picture books to graduate school. I have taught at four universities.
Entrepreneurship awareness can be woven into math, science, social science and language arts. It can be part of a math word problem or a poem. Each student could create an entrepreneurship portfolio.
When the student enters college, he or she will be looking for training to start a nonprofit or for-profit business in addition to being prepared for employment. A teacher can be an entrepreneur. An artist can be an entrepreneur. An engineer can be an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship awareness is to the Tri-State area's economic development what health awareness is to the medical community.
CHERYL MOORE, Ph.D.
Baltimore, Md.
The writer is a native of Wheeling, W.Va.
Let's move out of the dirty past
If we are going to make billions of dollars in investments as an answer to the rising cost of oil, why would we invest in coal ("Coal May Hold Solution to Gas Prices," June 23), an industry that destroys the land, pollutes water, contributes to global warming and is a health hazard to those it employs?
I would much rather see the government invest in alternative energy sources. A billion dollars in wind power, water power and bio-fuels would help reduce oil costs while actually increasing our sustainability.
This is a particular concern in our coal-rich region. Already more than 700 miles streams in the Appalachians have been eradicated by coal mining. Already greedy profiteers have proposed strip mining in South Park, anxious to cash in on rising fuel costs. Already 400,000 acres of Appalachian forests have been turned into flat, lifeless, barren land.
We can do better than this. Pittsburgh's culture is rooted in manufacturing, and renewable energy can play a role in moving our city and our country out of our dirty past toward a clean energy future that creates new, good jobs and builds our local economy. Investing in dirty, polluting, expensive liquid coal would only send us backward.
JENNIFER ENGLAND
Greenfield
More drilling won't lower prices
More smoke and mirrors from the president. First it was weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; now it is that drilling in protected areas will help. Sorry, there is an old saying: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Just a smidgen of logic says this additional drilling will not have any effect on the price of gas at the pump.
Eliminating all the "no right turn on red" signs that everyone has put up (other than California) would have more effect. Or charge $5,000 annually in every community for every sign that has been installed, which is the average additional gas used as a result of the signs.
TOM GALOWNIA
Cecil
We must kick the oil addiction
Anthony Biondi's June 17 letter ("Oil Restrictions") touting offshore drilling is both misguided and outdated. The idea is environmentally dangerous and economically preposterous. It was especially disappointing to see John McCain also endorse this idea.
Mr. Biondi's letter is flawed on both of its major points. He claims that 19 billion barrels of oil will last "several years." Unfortunately, at current consumption, this oil would last only about 2.5 years and then we'd be dependent on foreign oil yet again. What's worse, the new oil would have no impact on gas prices because it is such a small amount and oil prices are determined on a global scale. In fact, we're already drilling 80 percent of our underwater oil sources today.
Also, Mr. Biondi's statement that OPEC would increase production if we opened up our reserves ignores basic supply and demand economics. If we increase our own supply, foreign sources would naturally maintain or even cut the current supply of oil.
The drilling proposal benefits only oil companies and ignores the American consumer. Mr. McCain should wholly focus instead on encouraging alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass, all of which are abundant, renewable resources right here in Pennsylvania. We need to start investing in alternative energy sources and kick our oil addiction.
BRENDAN STUART
Carlisle, Pa.
Our oil-fueled lifestyles affect others
Regarding Charles Krauthammer's June 21 column ("McCain Should Go All the Way and Advocate Sensible Drilling"): I would like to make a couple of comments. The first has to do with John McCain's much-publicized "flip-flopping" on the issue of whether the United States should allow offshore drilling and/or drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Mr. McCain is being roundly criticized by many, including Barack Obama, for changing his position. Are we suggesting that a presidential candidate is not permitted to change his or her mind when more facts become available or there is a significant shift in a particular situation? I would like to think that somebody has another plan going forward besides the usual, "Let's make (another) deal" with the Arabs, et al., in the Middle East.
The other point made by Mr. Krauthammer is equally valid and ethically compelling. Despite the rampant political correctness in our society today, especially among the so-called liberals, I have to wonder how we can justify looking the other way while drilling in such places like the Niger Delta, Venezuela, Iran and, yes, even Saudi Arabia goes on unchecked just so we can continue with the lifestyles to which we have become accustomed.
To be sure, the United States is not the only nation buying and using this oil, but the argument could be made that oil yields from those areas is roughly equivalent to the so-called "blood diamonds." The people who live in these regions are not the ones reaping the financial windfalls and living like kings off the profits that are amassed. The damage being done to their environment is significant, while many of them live in abject poverty, not to mention being denied even the most basic of freedoms. How can we continue to ignore these facts?
I sure hope either Mr. McCain or Mr. Obama is willing to open -- and if necessary -- even change his mind if we ever expect anything else to change during this oil crisis.
PEGGY HOCKSWENDER
Swissvale
I'm disgusted with my own party
Since Sen. Barack Obama clinched the nomination, those of us who supported Sen. Hillary Clinton have been asked to put it behind us and come together in support of Sen. Obama. As skeptical as I have been for reasons that include lack of experience especially in foreign affairs, I was ready as a loyal Democrat (and not a newbie) to stand behind our candidate.
Even Sen. Clinton is ready to campaign together. Then we see the video tape from Detroit. I watched in horror as the Obama supporters booed the former first lady and current senator. This is the same event where the great Al Gore endorses Mr. Obama. Let me ask the Obama folks if this is the "change" we can hope for. It was like watching a President Bush rally where "you are either with us or against us." This, along with the "crowd manipulating" that goes on, reminds me of the current administration. Is this what the far left of our party is trying to make our party? Mrs. Clinton did more for the country and the Democratic Party than anyone in the building that day, including Mr. Gore. The thanks she gets -- booed?
I must give credit to Sen. Obama for chastising the crowd, but he couldn't stop them either. As a lifelong Democrat, I am disgusted with my own party. I vote against the Republicans because of the "far right"; I may do the same thing in November because of the "far left." We all know the only way the government gets anything done is from the middle. To Mr. Gore and the rest of our leaders: Where is the outrage of treating one of our own with such contempt?
TONY SGRO
Collier
Carnegie door decision is a disservice
My father and I are frequent visitors to the Carnegie Library in Oakland. For practical reasons, we always use the door that connects the museum with the library ("Door Between Carnegie's Library and Museum Locked," June 21). This shortcut allows my 92-year-old father to avoid the steep steps leading to the main entrance of the library; it also protects us from the summer's heat, the winter's cold and any sudden rain or snow showers.
However, we also value the shortcut as a way to shop at the museum gift store, see some of the new exhibits in the large foyer, share in the excitement of the schoolchildren about to discover the dinosaurs and admire the amazing Hall of Architecture.
Closing this door is more than an inconvenience; it is a disservice to Andrew Carnegie and all of us who consider this "Noble Quartet" as a second home. My dad and I plead with the Carnegie to reconsider this negative decision.
RONNA L. EDELSTEIN
Oakland
An investment that rewards us all
I, too, am a senior receiving Social Security and paying school taxes -- even more than letter writer D. Kelly ("Politicians, Listen Up," June 14 letters). In retrospect, I wonder who Mr. Kelly thinks paid for his schooling, especially if he came from a large family.
Each generation must support the next generation's education or the system simply will not work. Mr. Kelly should view his school taxes as an investment that will provide returns to all of society in the form of a higher tax base and, for seniors, higher Social Security taxes that a better educated work force will create.
In Massachusetts, the school boards are not allowed to set their tax rates and our educational system is rapidly moving to a crisis state.
I guess there are too many "Mr. Kelly's" in the world.
PAUL NELSON
Georgetown, Mass.
We welcome your letters. Please include your name, address and phone number, and send to Letters to the Editor, 34 Blvd. of the Allies, Pittsburgh 15222. E-mail letters to letters@post-gazette.com or fax to 412-263-2014. Letters should be 250 words or less, original and exclusive to the Post-Gazette. All letters are subject to editing for length, clarity and accuracy and will be verified before being published.
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