Car perks for gaming board are too costly
Chambersburg Public Opinion Online
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Despite what members of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board say, their state-provided vehicles are costing state taxpayers.
Former state Rep. Jeff Coy (D) stepped down from his job representing Franklin and Cumberland county residents in the Legislature last year, but he didn't walk away from his beige Cadillac DeVille sedan.
Taxpayers are paying the $650-a-month cost of the vehicle, the same one he leased while serving in the General Assembly. That's because Coy is now a member of the new Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, whose members get the same vehicle perks as elected legislators.
The seven members of the board, who will oversee the state's slot machine operations, may spend up to $650 a month to lease and insure vehicles. What's more, use of the vehicles isn't limited to official business.
Though $54,600 is not a lot when considering the cost of state government, it is too much when members work part-time and are already well compensated. Coy and the other members of the board get paid $145,000 a year, while the chairman will get $5,000 a year more.
State lawmakers wouldn't have to provide vehicles to get people to accept jobs like this, but the culture in Harrisburg is to spend on perks for those in government.
Asked by a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter whether driving a Cadillac on taxpayers' 6,500 dimes is ostentatious, Coy replied, "No comment."
Allow us to comment here.
Gaming board duties can't be that time-consuming when two of the seven members continue to have jobs as executives in the private sector.
Yet the salary for a gaming board member is double the pay for Pennsylvania's state legislators and $22,500 more than the chairman of the full-time Nevada Gaming Control Board, which oversees the largest gambling industry in the nation, according to former Public Opinion reporter Brad Bumsted's recent report in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Nevada regulators don't get state cars, Bumsted reported, and its gaming control board chairman is paid $122,434 annually while other members get $113,843. They serve fulltime.
Equally outrageous is the entitlement attitude of Pennsylvania gaming board members, who object to reports that their leased cars are paid with tax money. All of the board's expenses are paid with a loan from state taxpayers that will be repaid in two years, once gambling proceeds roll in.
So, they say, the expenses of running the board come from casino operators.
What a ridiculous argument. The money spent for these vehicles isn't going to be used for tax relief, the driving force behind slots in the first place.
And what happens if the law allowing slot machines is tossed out because of the way it was passed? The matter is being reviewed by the state Supreme Court. If the law is overturned, taxpayers would once again be left holding the bag.
Taxpayers should be used to that, given that it will cost $318 million just to operate the Pennsylvania General Assembly this year. So what's another $54,600 for gaming board members' cars?
A better way to compen-sate gaming board members would be to have them drive their own vehicles and be reimbursed for mileage.
State leaders, however, once again thumbed their noses at taxpayers when they approved paying for these additional vehicles.
Originally published March 26, 2005
Just another example of a Pennsylvania governmental ripoff of the taxpayers with no accountability.