Why did Gov. Ed Rendell trash a more extensive, less positive state audit of Medicaid error rates? Because it doesn't suit his political purposes as well as a less extensive, more positive federal audit that does.

Mr. Rendell says elected officials of both parties should stop using the state Department of Public Welfare, which administers federal Medicaid funding, as a "whipping boy" because a new federal audit found a 4-percent error rate in Pennsylvania's handling of Medicaid cases.

But the feds' audit covered just 500 cases. One released last month by state Auditor General Jack Wagner -- which covered 13,789 cases -- told a far different story: a whopping 15.5-percent error rate.

Rendell says the state audit is "out of line and out of whack." And it is -- with his priorities. But it's perfectly in line with taxpayers' priorities. Mr. Wagner says correcting a 10-percent error rate could save $436 million that could help close Pennsylvania's $4 billion budget gap.Republican Gov.-elect Tom Corbett will consider Wagner's Medicaid audit as he targets all sorts of Harrisburg waste, fraud and abuse.

And expect savings to be found that Rendell -- a truth-fudging tax-and-spend Democrat to the end -- never did during his eight years as governor.

DRO Bids Tabled For Week By Martha Knight

SMETHPORT—Bids totaled more than $1million when McKean County Commissioners opened interior work quotations Tuesday morning, relating to the new Domestic Relations facility.

Apparent low bidders were Carl E. Swanson and Sons, Bradford, general contractor, $295,975; Mazza mechanical Services, Olean, N.Y., mechanical, $207,000; Dasco Plumbing, Shippenville, plumbing, $$94,200; and NW Service Co., Warren, electrical, $479,000.

Some of the project components were said to have been bid in a higher range than originally estimated, but commissioners said the overall total seemed to meet expectations.

The commissioners tabled a decision to award contracts to the low bidders on the Domestic Relations “interior fit-out” work at the new Domestic Relations building. The shell has been erected on county-owned land near the jail.

A decision on those contracts is expected to come at the commissioners’ meeting on January 4, 2011. Meanwhile the bids will be studied in detail, for compliance with specifications.

In the regular meeting that followed the bid opening, commissioners authorized contracts and letters of agreement with the following service providers for the Department of Human Services:

Beacon Light Behavioral Health, JS Transport Services, Mars Home for Youth, and foster parents Gary and Susan Tessmer and DeWayne and Elva Werts.

A schedule of commissioners’ meetings for 2011 was adopted. It calls for meetings to be held at 10 a.m. in second and fourth Tuesdays, in the Commissioners’ Meeting Room in the Court House, except for meetings that will be held on January 4, April 5, July 19, October 4 and November 15 and 29.

Also adopted were the rules and regulations governing commissioners’ meetings, which are similar to those that have been in use right along.

Formal approval was given to salaries and wages for bargaining and non-bargaining employees who are not elected officials. All are receiving three percent increases. Those amounts were calculated into the 2011 general budget.

The county budget itself and the tax levy supporting it were given formal approval as well. There were no changes from the proposed budget that had been set earlier. Millage is unchanged, at 8.25, and the per capita tax continues to be $5 per adult county resident.

A previous decision by the commissioners was enacted in the form of a note resolution, which authorizes the borrowing of up to $3.5 million, as may be needed for cash flow, from PNC Bank’s Erie office, at a rate of 1.82 percent interest.

A Tax and Revenue Anticipation Note is used most years. Whatever amount is borrowed in the course of the TRAN is to be repaid on or before December 31, 2011.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will be provided with the entire county tax parcel geographical information system (GIS) data layer. Commissioner chairman Joe DeMott observed that this is in keeping with a policy recently adopted by the commissioners.

Cleaning contracts were renewed, for the Children and Youth Services Building, the 911/Emergency Management Agency Building and the Old County Home county offices. The “newer” building costs are pegged to $25 per day, and the other areas are to cost $10 a day for each area.

A new contract with waged employees of the McKean County Jail was ratified. The AFSCME unit had voted its approval Monday.

The four-year agreement calls for three percent increases in wages for 2011 and 2012, and 3.5 percent in 2013 and 2014. The shift differential is increased from 50 cents to 60 cents per hour.

Also, the longevity wage increments of $110 per increment year (after the first five years of employment) will continue through 25 years henceforth, rather than 20. The records clerk position was upgraded 60 cents an hour.

An invoice from Bradford City for $16,834 was approved. It represents payment for completion of its 2010 project funded under the Liquid Fuels program.

Under the Commissioners’ Comments item on the agenda, DeMott and fellow commissioners Judy Church and Al Pingie said they wish county residents a happy new year.

Under general public comments, Bruce Stone of Port Allegany and a reporter asked about the Area Transportation Authority (ATA) service. DeMott noted that he has been in contact with the director concerning the services the six-county agency provides within McKean County.

Penn State Coach Joe Paterno Sees No Reason To Leave Coaching After The Outback Bowl

Pennlive.com

TAMPA, Fla. -- Joe Paterno and his family maintain Saturday's Outback Bowl contest with Florida is merely the next game in the 84-year-old Penn State coach's legendary career.

A very popular Internet-driven rumor, however, maintains it is Paterno's last game for health reasons.

Paterno's status for 2011 is the hot topic down here and all throughout the Nittany Lion nation.

The Penn State coach, whose current contract expires at the end of the 2011 season, battled an intestinal bug throughout last spring and summer and was slowed by a cold during the final month of the Lions' 7-5 regular season.

But if there is a plan in place for Paterno to step down shortly after the Outback Bowl, neither Joe, nor his wife Sue, nor daughter Mary Katherine Hort is aware of it.

"I don't know when I'm gonna get out,'' Paterno said Tuesday afternoon during a joint news conference with Florida's 46-year-old head coach, Urban Meyer. It will be Meyer's last game at Florida, by the way.

"People think I'm going to quit this year or next year, I haven't even thought of it,'' continued Paterno, who, by the way, also said he would return for 2011 a few days before PSU's 28-22 loss to Michigan State in the Nov. 27 regular-season finale.

"I honest to goodness have not thought of it.''

But the rumor will not go away. Philadelphia Daily News sports columnist Bill Conlin, one of the most respected writers in the business and a man who used to cover PSU and Paterno, told Paterno he did a Google search of "Joe Paterno latest rumors".

Conlin said it produced 393,000 responses. Conlin asked Paterno about the effect of social networking on a person's privacy. In this case, a famous person's privacy.

"I just don't particularly like the idea of people having that much access to anything they want to put on there [the internet],'' Paterno said.

A couple of PSU media members discussed the Joe Paterno retirement rumor with Paterno's wife, Sue, and daughter, Mary Katherine Hort, during a public appearance Monday in Tampa.

Sue Paterno said she field a call at the Paterno home in State College wondering about Joe Paterno's condition considering he was in the hospital.

One problem -- Joe wasn't in the hospital.

"I told people when they called last week, I said, 'He's fine, he's in Florida,' '' Sue Paterno told Fightonstate.com, a well-known Penn State Internet site.

They said, 'No, he's not, he's in the hospital.' I said, 'No, he's in Florida … you don't know what you're talking about.' I knew they were calling me a liar. But I knew where he was.''

"It's not his planned last game,'' Hort said.

"We got a big problem in State College last week,'' Joe Paterno said.

"Somebody said I was down at the Hershey [Medical Center]. … Geez, I was home chewing out somebody for being late for a [team] meeting. It's ridiculous. I don't know when I'll get out of it. And I haven't even thought about it.''

Major college football's all-time wins leader -- 401 and counting -- said his high comfort level at Penn State is a major reason why he has continued to lead the Penn State program. Lions defensive coordinator Tom Bradley was a finalist for the Temple head job that recently went to Florida assistant Steve Addazio. But Bradley, a PSU grad who has served under Paterno for 32 years, is staying, and so is everyone else on Paterno's staff.

"I haven't even thought of [leaving],'' Joe Paterno said Tuesday.

"The situation around me is very stable. The athletic director [Tim Curley] was a kid that I recruited as a walk-on, the coaches have been with [me], I haven't had a lot of guys leave. Our president [Graham Spanier] has been with us now maybe 14-15 years.

"We have a lot of fun together. I don't see any reason to get out of it yet.''