PENNSYLVANIA INDEPENDENT: There was a time when the Harrisburg incinerator was a successful waste-to-energy plant. Then, with the stock market rising and every American looking like a sharp investor, politicians hooked up with Wall Street in a series of exotic financial deals designed to finance plant upgrades.
After a decade, they’ve incinerated not just trash — but cash.
Meeting in October, state lawmakers heard the grim tale — how through finance and refinance, the Harrisburg Authority and city officials multiplied the facility’s $80 million debt more than four times into an astonishing $340 million. Despite the rising debt, the improvements failed, and the facility earned nowhere near what experts forecasted. And now, with the incinerator closed for business, there’s no revenue — and so no way to pay off the massive debt, save pending sale of the facility. The only winners appear to be the Wall Street dealmakers who collected some $40 million in commissions and fees over a decade of transactions… (more)
EDITOR: The Lancaster Solid Waste Management Authority has offered to purchase the Harrisburg incinerator for a sum comparable to the cost of the Convention Center without any critical note taken by the County Commissioners or the Lancaster Newspapers.
As was the case with the Convention Center Authority, they have no expert feasibility study.
hey are using money that had been accumulated from Lancaster tipping fees to expand their Lancaster facilities. The main beneficiary (if not the only beneficiary) of the Authority’s investment will be inhabitants of Dauphin County.
If the Waste Authority errs, its losses will be reflected in our trash bills. Won’t someone other than NewsLanc raise questions? Don’t we ever learn?
Our commissioners MUST review this. Perhaps county legislation regulating trash bills is needed. We cannot allow the Waste Authority to put their hands in our pockets. Doesn’t anyone remember the John Barley controversy of a few years ago?