Corruption in Coal Region government is part of the culture of the region, arising out of the collective struggle of European immigrants who banded together to survive and prosper in the difficult world surrounding the mining industry.
In the very heart of coal country, Luzerne County is rapidly gaining national notoriety for corruption that is shocking in both degree and breadth. Judges, school officials and county commissioners have been accused of accepting bribes in a variety of pay-to-play schemes. In all, 23 people have been charged.
Northumberland County shares a heritage with its sister county and the woes seem familiar.
Citizens may still recall the 2000 Santa Bernie scandal in which Children and Youth workers pocketed gift cards intended for needy youths. The county prison has borne a tarnished image since 2004 when a grand jury indicted seven guards, most for smuggling contraband into the facility. Since then, most of the allegations fall short of outright corruption and more in the realm of incompetence. Despite all the disappointing and dismaying news about Northumberland County government, deputies looking at dirty pictures is not exactly corruption. Neither is kicking senior citizens off a county-owned bus or failing to collect tax revenue owed by the county by those who have filed bankruptcy.
The difference is small comfort and the causes of the problem are similar.
It was common in Northumberland County and much of Northeastern Pennsylvania for politicians to gain influence by soliciting votes from friends and neighbors and then rewarding supporters with government jobs for which they had little training or interest in doing. Workers might feel entitled to jobs to a degree that their efforts fall dramatically short of what would be expected out of employees in the private sector.
Political patronage is poisonous to efforts to reform government.
In Luzerne County, the patronage system contributed to a psychology. In Northumberland County, the effects have been less scandalous, but comparably widespread. We may not suffer from the strictest definition of corruption in Northumberland County, but the county has endured ample corrosion that has wasted money and fueled inefficiency.
