Officials Resign in Protest of Mysterious Casino Revenue Spending

Several members of a committee that is in charge of allocating casino gaming funds in Erie County, Pennsylvania, resigned after gambling income was used elsewhere.

After a budget funded by gaming revenues was reduced even while the gambling income was significantly increasing, several officials on the Regional Assets Funding Committee in Erie County, Pennsylvania, resigned in protest. Despite a jump of more than fifteen percent in casino intake, programs paid for by gambling saw earmarked funding shuffled elsewhere.

Committee chairman Christopher Borgia and members Christine Schalles and Barb Hauck quit after county funding for such projects as the Erie Zoo, festivals, and nonprofit events was cut by over $500,000. These programs are paid for by gaming revenue, which increased from $10.2 million to $12 million.

If business continues to rise at the Presque Isle Downs and Casino, why are programs for which gambling was installed being slashed, ask the three committee members.

"Our hope is that (Erie) County Council will make allocations of all gaming revenue dollars more public and more clearly understood," said the three in a written statement.

Borgia told the Erie Times-News that the County Council had redirected money intended for the discretion of the RAFC and "and used it for other purposes."

The county manager of accounting, Sue Ellen Pasquale, acknowledged other projects were receiving money that had gone to the RAFC previously. She said that gambling funding now supports the Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Erie International Airport, and other areas that had been supported by county general funds.

Those funds, she said, had to be freed up to pay for salaries, health care, and pensions.

"Overpriced workers who are going to be paid twenty years after their last day working for the county get the money for the airport and transportation. So those same people decide it's ok to steal the money for culture and beautification to hide the circulation of county funds to them?" asked Joe Ellis, long-time Erie resident.