April 9, 2001
 
 Cas, Cas, Cas - you just never learn, do you?
 
 Heard of Greater Cumberland? You remember Greater Cumberland, the secret society created just a few months ago to tackle economic development matters, unfettered by input from the great unwashed masses (that would be us, the general population of Allegany County, in case you didn’t know).
 
 When this merry group was unveiled in local media outlets, the scoop was this: you had to be invited to join, and then once you made the list you had to pay $2,100, which entitled you to sit through monotonous meetings. (Thank goodness we’re not important.)
 
 What Greater Cumberland’s spokesperson, John Balch, forgot to mention in unveiling this group is the real reason the group exists: to prop up Cas Taylor.
 
 Ok, maybe we’re discussing the obvious here, but someone has to say it out loud.
 
 How do we know this? Because sources from inside Greater Cumberland have told us that in order to get a decent membership roster (they have 35 members), Mr. Taylor made personal phone calls to people imploring them to join. In addition, when Greater Cumberland hired its staff of one, that staff person announced publicly that she had been interviewed by three people, one of whom was Cas Taylor.
 
 Isn’t it a little weird that a politician has set up a secret society of the well-to-do to push his agenda, which, by the way, isn’t written down, but exists only in his head (as his staff told us when we asked for a copy of his grand plan for Allegany County)?
 
 Is this creepy, or what?
 
 Perhaps the creepiest is Greater Cumberland’s objective, which also wasn’t announced when news of the group was presented to the public. Greater Cumberland’s aim is to create economic and business development objectives, then pass those along to the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce to carry out.
 
 Nice. Now the majority of business people in Allegany County - including those who are paying dues to the Chamber of Commerce - have no say in the direction or future of our business community.
 
 Cool, huh?
 
 Apparently the Chamber itself was too unwieldy for Mr. Taylor to control, so he’s essentially convinced a group of citizens to pay $2,100 each so he can tell them what to do.
 
 This is quite a racket Mr. Taylor has going. Maybe when the voters toss him out of the General Assembly, he can get a job in sales.
 
 One more thing. We do not want to imply that the individual members of Greater Cumberland are bad guys - we don’t think they are. Most are upstanding citizens hoping to help their community. But when Mr. Taylor calls about joining an organization, how many are going to say no? The specter of being black balled is plenty persuasive.