The Rittenhouse Review

A Philadelphia Journal of Politics, Finance, Ethics, and Culture


Thursday, May 26, 2005  

GOOD FOR . . . SOMETHING?
Sewer-Boy Santorum

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has been rolling around in the muck again: No, not cavorting with the most extremist elements of the American right wing (nor their dogs), but working on sewers in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.

The Allentown Morning Call today reports Monroe County, Pa., commissioners yesterday “approved a tax incremental financing plan to help fund a $40 million central sewage system designed to keep the nation’s sole supplier of injectable flu vaccine in the Poconos.”

That would be Sanofi Pasteur, which, according to Matt Birkbeck’s report, “Monroe OKs Sanofi Sewer Financing,” “has an on-site sewer system [in Pocono Township] that’s near capacity. In December, the company threatened to kill a planned $160 million expansion of its vaccine facility unless the state and Pocono Township agreed to build new sewer capacity.”

Sen. Santorum is credited, along with Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R), for securing $10 million in federal funding for the sewer system.

Fittingly, given Sen. Santorum’s involvement, State Rep. Mario Scavello (R), called the financing a “no brainer.”

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