Fontana Wants Information on Liberty Fund Proposal

The Corbett Administration wants to collapse 18 programs that were line items under the department of community and economic development into what is called the Liberty Financing Authority or Fund which will controlled by the Governor himself.

Wayne Fontana, State Senator of the 42nd District of Allegheny County says removing the role of the locally elected officials and relinquishing all power to the Governor's office will infringe on transparency in government.

He put out a request to restore the line items as they were in previous budgets using the funding appropriated by the governor. He said there is a lot of confusion as to how it will work and he is not sure what it will accomplish.

"Part of the reason we're hearing is that we want the program to be more efficient and there is still some vagueness as to how its going to work. That's the problem. And here we are in the last month of the budget and we still don't know how its going to work," said Fontana.

He said he does know that this will cut out officials such as himself in the role of middle-man in such deals. He wants information on the Liberty Fund Proposal.