The Pennsylvania Senate, June 28, stripped from the $62.823 million appropriations bill for the state Gaming Control Board an amendment that would have allocated $1.5 million for a computer system for investigation and enforcement purposes.
The Vereb Amendment would effectively transfer investigation and enforcement of gaming to the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General.
So, what’s up with that? They computers would have separated the investigation and enforcement branch of gaming from the executive and policy branches. This would have alleviated the conflicts of interest found by Pennsylvania Grand Jury.
The bill, SB1062, now returns to the House Rules Committee.
The amendment has been called the Vereb Amendment in honor of Montco Rep. Mike Vereb (R-150) albeit Curt Schroder (R-155) deserves a lot of credit as well.
Giving this money to the Gaming Control Board without this amendment would be like giving Chivas Regal to an alcoholic or mailing heroin to an addict.
The not-so-good-guys in this story are Senate leaders Jake Corman, Dominic Pileggi, Joe Scarnati, Jane Earll, and Tommy Tomlinson of Bensalem.
So, again, what’s up with cutting funds for a computer system aimed at keeping tabs on an agency with known issues?