In response to a message from an informed source: “I suggest you all be careful before jumping to conclusions after watching the news segment on WGAL. They did a very poor job in reporting the facts accurately.”

Another knowledgeable person writes:

“If that is the case THEN the spokesperson for the CC and the spokesperson for the Hotel should DEMAND an interview so the public knows what is going on.  The word TRANSPARANCY is front row again…

“Taxpayers are tired of wasteful spending and private projects that are funded with tax dollars.  Taxpayers are going to pay and pay heavily for this project, so the powers that be had better have good insurance coverage IF there are REAL issues.”

I want to invite everyone to an excellent program that we have this Friday at the Fulton Bank Quadrant from 10:00AM to 4:00PM organized by the new Lancaster Ability Coalition which includes a number of Agencies/Providers assisting people with Disabilities.

We are celebrating the ADA 19th Anniversary which includes a reading of a Proclamation issued by the Mayor and the reading of a Lancaster City Council Resolution by The Honorable Judge and President of City Council Mrs. Louise Williams, introduced and passed last week…

Other activities include:

• Music by a DJ recommended by the United Disability Services
• Children Face painting performed by people with disabilities
• Free Fresh Twizzlers for everyone.
• Demonstration of a Traffic Signal / Talk simulator; a much needed unit in our City of Lancaster to help the Blind while crossing the streets and already installed at many other cities.
• Human Relations Commission gifts distribution.
• Paintings Expo done by people with Disabilities.
• Linda Anthony, Policy Director Disability rights Network of Pa. and MC for the day.

End of the day cascading to a PICNIC, Music (Bands Performing) open to the Public United Disabilities Services (Greenfield Corporate Center ) 1901 Olde Homestead Lane Lancaster Pa 17605

There is a possible change to the landscape of North President Avenue which I do not believe has yet attracted the attention of NewsLanc of the Lancaster Newspapers organization.

Lancaster History.org (Formerly the Lancaster County Historical Society and Wheatland) have proposed a 10,000 square foot addition to the rear of the Historical Society building at the corner of N. President and Marietta Avenues. As part of this reallocation of the property, most parking will be moved to a new lot adjacent it N. President Ave…

This should be an important issue to others because other than a vague comment made at the June 23 Lancaster Township Zoning Board hearing that the new facility would be used to accommodate activities that already take place on the property, no details of the building were disclosed. Despite the detailed drawings of the grounds and the offering of statistics on visitors to the two facilities, no drawings of the interior of the building were presented.

My suspicion is that it will be a banquet hall designed to accommodate wedding receptions and the like.

Why do I feel this way? We were told there would be no expansion of the staff. How do you build and use a 10,000 sq ft building and not increase staff? If my suspicions are correct, traffic (and everything that comes with it) will surely increase in the area.

The Zoning Hearing Board is expected to render their verdict at the July 28 meeting.

[In response to "Special health care report to NewsLanc from D.C. Correspondent," and "The road to Socialism"]

This is one of those many issues in our history that initially looks impossible but than becomes inevitable when the pressure mounts. Health care MUST be dealt with, not only because 20,000 die each year due to lack of health care access and most bankruptcies are caused by health problems even though people are insured, but also because the government at the national and state level cannot afford to let things continue. Health care guarantees deficits and debt for as far as the eye can see. Single payer is the only way to successfully address the issue. The politics will change—and that is our job, to change it—make the impossible the inevitable.

It is a transition that happens all the time. Just ask women who are voting, blacks who can drink at any water fountain and gays who are not marrying. All impossible, all inevitable. Difficult but it will happen.

I say that the CC is a County asset, whether or not there is a public authority sitting in between the County and the specific asset.  As such, all of its debts, obligations, and encumbrances eventually fall to the County whether a specific guarantee exists or not between the County and the LCCCA.

Could we possibly allow creditors of the LCCCA to seize assets within the CC  for unpaid bills?  The reality is that the CC is as much a County asset as 150 N. Queen and as a result all debts belong to us.

I have been following with great interest the story of the new hotel having been declared exempt from property, school, city and county taxes. I distinctly remember that the tax revenues from the hotel would benefit primarily the School District of Lancaster and this was one of the prime selling points from the developers.

I really did not and truthfully could not follow all of the endless twists and turns the project took over the years but is this exemption legal?

I found a document, a legal opinion, online dated April 11, 2005 from Kegel Kelin Almy and Grimm LLP to the Counrty Commissioners that states the hotel cannot be tax exempt. Here is the link:

COUNTY OF LANCASTER/CONVENTION CENTER – Memo on Tax Immunity Issue

I and several people I know were shocked when we read in the newspaper last Friday of this exemption. No one I have talked to knew of this either.

Can you give some insight?

Editor’s response: By selling the Watt & Shand site to the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Lancaster (RACL) and allowing it to be the nominal owner and, in turn, net lease the hotel to Penn Square Partners, High and the Lancaster Newspapers were able to achieve exemption from county, city, and school real estate taxes. Of course, this was in total contradiction to earlier representations.

[In response to "Special health care report to NewsLanc from D.C. Correspondent"]

I love how these socialists in DC support a single payer, government run health system, using the argument that only the government can effectively run such a business. I suppose it also makes sense to have the government to take over the housing and rental markets too – NOT!

And do these socialists believe that the public is so stupid as to not realize that those who are attempting to craft this “wonderful” system are exempting themselves and their families from having to participate?

Our congressmen and other members of the government will still have free choice. Only the poor chump public won’t.

President Obama would have the same opponents to real health care reform as he does for the tinkering approach he is taking.

Failing to properly deal with health care means deficit spending for as far as the eye can see as health care is the main driver for budget shortages at the state and federal level. It is also the main driver for bankruptcy and most of the people going bankrupt have insurance but health coverage is usually inadequate when a real health problem hits. So, this is a serious matter for good government as well as health care for Americans. Obama is right to raise it but so far the solutions are inadequate, even counterproductive.

One thing that the Congressional effort to reform health care reform is showing is that a multi-payer approach, i.e. private insurance based approach, is not going to work. When the CBO came out with its report last week the two major issues failed: cost and coverage. On coverage, even the most robust Democratic plan, Kennedy-Dodd, left 37 million uninsured after ten years. If that is the case why bother? Especially when it is going to cost more than $1 trillion.

It is evident to those of us who work on this issue every day (for years!) that the current system is not reformable but must be transformed. We’ve created a system that is the most expensive and inefficient in the world, almost double per capita of any other country, and it results in 20,000 people dying annually due to lack of health care according to the NAS.

When you have hospitals with more billing agents to deal with insurance companies than they have nurses — it is not sustainable. It is crazy that some hospitals have one insurance administrator per hospital bed. And doctors, spending nearly a month a year personally dealing with insurance companies while 20% of their office overhead goes to dealing with billing battles with the insurance industry — no wonder doctors are leaving the profession, causing a shortage.

On top of that businesses have to deal with insurance and so do consumers — writing, calling, filling out forms. It all adds up to 31% of the cost of health care in the U.S. Obama and the Democrats are not confronting any of this with the plans they are putting forward so it is obvious why they will not work.

[A Senator] leaned over and whispered in my ear last week as he was leaving a hearing on health care, “I used to sell insurance. The rule is the bigger the pool the less costly the system. Right now we have 1,500 private insurance plans (he underestimated) and that is inefficient. If we had 700 it would be better but if we had one it would be the most efficient. That is why single payer makes the most sense.” I thought that was pretty good middle American common sense that most Americans would understand especially with an eloquent communicator-in-chief like President Obama.

The only thing the Democratic plans will do is add to the coffers of the insurance industry. It will be a multi-hundred billion dollar annual giveaway to them. They will get richer and as a result more politically powerful, donating to politicians, spending on lobbying and hiring political spouses to be on their boards. The pay to play corruption that prevents health care reform, real reform, will get worse.

I like the Obama circa 2003 when he was a state senator “I’m a supporter of single payer. But, we have to win the presidency, House and Senate before we can have it.”

We will be better off if this bill fails and they start over.

In early 2005, S. Dale High personally demanded that the “private” hotel receive some form of tax abatement, and literally threw a temper tantrum when he didn’t get his own way.  The “solution” arranged by Charlie Smithgall, Gib Armstrong, and Mike Sturla was for Lancaster City to build and own the hotel building, guaranteeing its tax exemption.

It was this action that cemented my opposition to the project.

The June 19 article in the Intelligencer Journal, written by David Pidgeon, said “Lancaster County Property Assessment Office had deemed the 300-room Marriott Hotel to be exempt from county, city and school property taxes”…

I was not aware of the potential tax exempt change until reading that article on Friday. Everyone I have spoken with since then was shocked to learn of the change. I am sure the general public did not know this tax exemption was coming.

Follow up by you on this issue would be much appreciated.