Let the obstacles and naysaying begin.
Gov. Tom Corbett and his administration are pushing hard to privatize the Pennsylvania Lottery.
The moves toward privatization would bring billions of dollars into state coffers.
That would help clean up the state's fiscal indebtedness and infuse the underfunded pension system with the kind of cash that could allow the rest of the state budget to be used to fund programs and services and public education.
These practical plans haven't kept the red flag holders from raising their hands early and often recently.
There are concerns that the 20- to 30-year agreement with Camelot Global Services to manage the $3.5 billion lottery is costly to terminate and too lengthy. Of course, the state has been married to public employee unions for decades and no one ever questioned the details of that arrangement.
The state employees union and seven Democratic lawmakers have filed a lawsuit in Commonwealth Court seeking to stop the state from privatizing the management of the lottery, claiming Corbett doesn't have the right to do so without approval of the Legislature.
In other words, he doesn't have the right to make decisions that don't fit the big government platform.
A Corbett spokesman called the challenge to the Lottery Act of 1971 "frivolous," but we disagree.
Pennsylvania's track record on reform that makes its government smaller and private interests larger is one of consistent struggle, so we won't assume anything less here.
But efforts to privatize the lottery and the liquor store system are in the best interests of the majority of Pennsylvanians, even if the protectors of government as lord and master want to infer otherwise.
Gov. Corbett is considering pushing back the Dec. 31 deadline for acceptance of the Camelot bid in reaction to a lot of the pushback he's getting. If the delay will ultimately result in a deal, fine. But we encourage the governor to stay on the course of privatizing functions of state government.
