Pa. May Pull Back On Funding For Redevelopment Projects

Map of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s most sweeping economic development programs could see a limited spending cap and permanent guidelines under a recently passed proposal.

The state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (often called “R-Cap”) provides grants with borrowed money for private projects pursued by municipalities and local agencies.

That could include hospital expansions, parking garages or community centers — any project with a cultural, civic or historical connection that could create jobs and be tied to economic development.

But the program is often criticized as a questionable source of ballooning debt.

RACP’s debt ceiling is $4.05 billion, about 10 times what it was when it was created in 1986.

Read more:  
http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130224/NEWS03/130229703/pa-may-pull-back-on-funding-for-redevelopment-projects#full_story

Scranton Triple-A Baseball Park Grant – No Comment

An interesting article appeared in yesterday’s Morning Call about PNC Field in Moosic, a Scranton suburb.  The 22-year-old, 10,000 seat stadium is in need of repairs to its concrete and steel structure.  PNC Field is the home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, a Triple A farm team for MLB’s New York Yankees.

So along comes Fast Eddie offering a $20,000,000.00 grant to help repair the aging stadium.  This would be the largest grant ever given during the Rendell administration’s tenure.  The money would come from the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.

It seems officials would like to see PNC Field become more like Coca Cola Park in Allentown, which is more family-friendly. 

Now the catch is, there must be matching funding for the project.  As of Monday, there was no definite answer where the other half of the money would come from.  The entire project is being kept a secret for some reason.  Rendell’s office is not commenting on what exactly the money will be used for.  At this juncture, one can only speculate what the project will entail.

The Rendell administration is braying about the economic impact of fixing the stadium.  That is all well and good but why all the secrecy?  The Yankees are making no comments either.  It is time for new leadership in this state who believe in transparency!