HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS OP-ED: Contrary to the assertion of the Sept. 26 Patriot-News editorial that my objection to the receiver’s plan “yanks the city backwards,” it is actually intended to find the best way forward while at the same time protecting the interest of Harrisburg and its residents.
The plan merely kicks the can further down the road toward likely failure in the future, after having surrendered Harrisburg’s most valuable assets and prolonged the loss of decision making powers by its residents. The real question is: is delaying the inevitable in the best interest of the city or simply in the best interest of the creditors, lawyers and consultants, and their supporters at the State Capitol, who created a plan that places a crushing expense on the taxpayers and residents of Harrisburg?…
I do not consider paying the major creditors in full, as envisioned if the plan succeeds in its latter decades, or extending payments for another 10 years at a higher interest rate that results in paying an added $27.5 million to a creditor, as concessions. I believe the city should have, and could have, been granted real and substantive relief if the negotiators had been more aggressive… (more)
EDITOR: This whole creditor bail out orchestrated by Gov. Tom Corbett stinks and our Lancaster County Commissioners and the LCSWMA should be ashamed of themselves for wasting as much as a hundred million dollars of Lancaster money as part of the deal.
