Last August when Bethlehem City Council in a split-decision vote of 4-3 put casino gambling in the Moravian Christmas City on temporary life support, Councilwoman Jean Belinsi delivered her hand-wringing, hair-pulling rational of why she cast her vote for life support: Without casino gambling, Bethlehem could not repay $150 million it owes the federal government for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds the city received for low- to moderate-income projects such as housing but spent instead on “economic development” in tax exemptions and other subsidies to developers like Joe Posh and Louis Pektor.

Most of these corporate welfare handouts came in the form of tax increment financing, or TIF, that diverted tax revenue from the city’s coffers and into the pockets of the developers.

Bethlehem’s dire fiscal straits are described in an article published in yesterday’s edition of The Express-Times (Aug. 10, 2006), “Officials daunted by city’s big debt.”

That August meeting also violated Pennsylvania’s Open Public Meetings statute, or “Sunshine law.”  Bethlehem City Council President J. Michael Schweder allowed Mayor John Callahan and Las Vegas Sands Casino Chief Operating Officer William Weidner to address council while denying casino gambling opponents the right to speak.

I was at the meeting, standing in the aisle several rows behind BethWorks partner Michael Perrucci.  There were two vacant seats in the row to my right, but they were reserved for BethWorks partner Barry Gosin of New York City’s Newmark & Co., a big investor in BethWorks, and his wife.

The stretch limo, carrying the Gosin party including Weidner, arrived late from NYC.  Weidner took a seat next to Perrucci, who had reserved it for the Las Vegas Sands executive.

The whole sorry story of bandrupt Bethlehem Steel’s 1600 acres has been distorted by officials and the mainstream media.

Lehigh Valley Industrial Parks Inc. didn’t buy the property from Cleveland-based International Steel Group (IGA) and its multi-billion CEO Wilbur Ross, as widely reported in the mainstream media.

LVIP acquired the property from Mittal Steel of India and its owner Lakshmi Mattal, as I have reported in several posts on my Billy Bytes blog.

These were accompanied by stories of the relationship between Mittal Steel and Arcelor Steel of Luxemborg and Lakshmi Mittal’s influence in the U.S. Presidential election of 2000.

Mittal and Candidate George W. Bush supported embargoes on the dumping of cheap steel in both their countries by reivals like the People’s Republic of China.

This position served Candidate bush well in the campaign in steel producing states and related industries like coal.  And though Candidate Bush failed to carry Pennsylvania, he did succeed in carrying the crucial states of West Virginia and Ohio.

The final chapter on casion gambling in Pennsylvania is yet to be written.

I wrote the first chapter when accompanied by my friend Palmer Towhship resident John Todero I attended the January 3, 2005, Northampton County Council meeting and asked it to hold public hearings on casino gambling in Northampton County.

Council agreed, but unfortunately Council President gave the assignment of arranging the hearing dates and places to Councilwoman Ann McHale.

McHale is council’s representative for District 1, consisting of Bethlehem and Hellertown Borough, whose officials support casino gambling, as does McHale.

Consequently, McHale delayed the public hearings as long as possible.  The first hearing didn’t take place until June 28, 2005, more than six months after council approved public hearings.

This was the only county public hearing, which took place in Moravian College’s Foy Hall, where the turnout was overwhelemingly anti-gambling.

At that point, Bethlehem succeeded in wresting the public hearings away from the county, and began its own hearings with Schweder presiding’

The first of these hearings occurred on July 5, 2005, in Bethlehem City Council chambers, followed by a hearing in Broughal Middle School, and then a third and final hearing back in City Hall chambers.

I am endorsing the write-in candidacy of Hellertown Republican Ron Shegda over Democrat Robert Freeman for the 136th Legislative Distict on November 7, 2006.

In 2007, I will be campaigning for the defeat of Northampton County District 1 Reprentative Ann McHale, District 2 Representative J. Michael Dowd, and District 3 Representative Lamont McClure.

I support Lynn Swann over incumbent Governor Ed Rendell.

I will support neither Rich Santorum nor Bob Casey Jr. for the U.S. Senate for this reason: Both of these candidates are pro-life and as such have disenfranchised millions Pennsylvania’s women who are pro-choice.

Ron Shegda, of course, is also pro-life, but he is running for state representative, an office that has no influence on this issue.

I support Ron, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Economics with advanced studies from Tufts and MIT.

I support the Ron because he is a fiscal conservative.