The annual selection process for Dauphin County's gaming grants commenced on Tuesday, but Mike Musser II, the program's longtime consultant, is no longer involved. The Dauphin County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) terminated Musser's company's contract last month following public scrutiny of his lucrative contracts with local governments. The gaming grants, funded by casino slot machine revenue, are awarded to projects that benefit health, public safety, transportation, infrastructure, and more. The IDA's internal staff will now manage the program.
The annual selection process for Dauphin County’s gaming grants began Tuesday — but a fixture of the program was absent. Political consultant Mike Musser II, who oversaw the program since 2008, is no longer involved after the Dauphin County Industrial Development Authority, which issues the grants, canceled his company’s contract last month.
The move followed a blitz of public scrutiny over lucrative contracts Musser held with Dauphin County and other local governments and marked the end of Musser’s last known contract with the county.The grants, officially titled Local Share Municipal Grants but widely referred to as gaming grants, are funded by casino slot machine revenue, as state law requires a portion of that money to be distributed to municipalities. The IDA doles out millions each year to projects meant to improve health, public safety, transportation, infrastructure and more. Grantees are selected by a five-member advisory board which screens applications during a series of in-person public hearings, during which applicants have 30 minutes to make their best case for projects that could be financed by the money. Hearings for the 2024-2025 grant cycle began Tuesday and will continue through next week. Musser’s previous role is being handled internally by county staff starting this year and into the future, according to George Connor, executive director of the IDA and the county’s Community and Economic Development Department. In 2008, the IDA board tapped Musser’s company, Community Networking Resources, to oversee the program, including developing the application process and guidelines, reviewing applications and helping to usher applicants through the process. Records indicate the company was not selected through a competitive process. It was given the job, for which it was paid $5,000 per month, after it “proposed serving as the consultant,” according to IDA meeting minutes from 2008. The contract auto-renewed each year, requiring no public discussion or vote. Musser’s contracts with the county and related agencies first came under scrutiny in November after Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas, who took office in 2024,at a public meeting. Douglas took particular aim at Musser’s contract with Visit Hershey & Harrisburg, the county’s designated tourism bureau, which is 95% publicly funded and has paid Community Networking Resources $870K since 2012 to liaison with local politicians on its behalf.the borough had with Musser’s company and clients and called on the borough’s council to approve a forensic audit of its finances.to review contracts and financing for an infrastructure project that may have been influenced by Musser and ex-Dauphin County Commissioner Jeff Haste, a political ally of Musser’s who has also been the subject of A few days after that, at another public meeting, Douglas revealed at least one of Musser’s two contracts with the county’s Redevelopment Authority waswith McNees Government Relations, the newly consolidated political consulting arm of the law firm McNees, Wallace & Nurick, of which he was named president in October, just two months prior. Neither McNees nor Musser gave a reason for his departure or said whether he resigned or was terminated.with Community Networking Resource on Dec. 19, the same day the Dauphin County IDA voted to terminate the company’s gaming grant contract and the county’s Economic Development Corporation voted to terminate a contract with the company to oversee its Housing and Rehabilitation Program. But the most lucrative of Musser’s known, publicly-funded contracts may still be active. Visit Hershey & Harrisburg did not immediately respond to questions about whether its contract with Community Networking Resources to act as a liaison remains in effect. Applications for the 2024-2025 gaming grant cycle closed in October, and grant awardees are typically announced in the spring. For the first time, the program’s public hearings are being live streamed on the county’s new Department of Community and Economic Development. Meetings can also be attended in person at 3211 North Front Street, Suite 201 in Harrisburg. The remaining hearings are scheduled for the following dates and times:Do you have information about Dauphin County you’d like to share? Reach reporter Juliette Rihl at jrihl@pennlive.com or by encrypted email atIf you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our
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