News article “State says county must reveal hotel tax collection” reports:
Sunday News Editor Marv Adams said, “We are pleased with the ruling by the state Office of Open Records. I hope the county doesn’t try to delay again what we have seen from the beginning as information that the public has a right to know.
“These figures will give a much clearer picture of room tax collections, and we will also be asking the treasurer for information on which establishments are behind in paying their taxes and by how much,” Adams said.
WATCHDOG: Two wags of the tail for Adams and the Sunday News! This information will indeed be an eye opener and very useful. Adams may already have a pretty good idea how the Marriott is doing since his parent company owns half of it. But perhaps not.
I wonder what the underlying reason is for this deisre to know what all the competitive hotels contribute to the downtown white elephant? LNP seldom if ever does anything for the ‘public interest’ without having another (usually profit-making) motive. I’ll reserve my wags until the full story becomes a little clearer.
These articles and editorials published in the Lancaster Newspapers make it appear to be more and more likely that LNP truly does not know what their “partner” in the Penn Square Partners has really been up to. Is it possible that Lancaster Newspapers has been manipulated and taken advantage of nearly as much as the public?
EDITOR: It is a moral certitude that the Steinman Foundation would not have wished to profit at the expense of the community.
Rather, it has always been the gist of NewsLanc’s reflections that that the then CEO involved LNP with the best of intentions, improperly relied on others to handle the project, and , when properly informed, lacked the will power to redress the situation.
Meanwhlie the Steinman family leaders were of an advanced age where they could not appreciate what was taking place.