Rendell touts economic package
MONESSEN – Gov. Ed Rendell was in Monessen Friday touting his community and economic development stimulus package. “Nobody’s ever given Pennsylvania in recent times a chance to come back,” Rendell said. “There are places like Monessen all over Pennsylvania. Thirty years ago they were booming with employment and jobs.”
Rendell said the mills are all but gone, mining is taking a downturn and railroad jobs have fallen off by nearly 90 percent.
“In the 10 years between 1992 and 2002, Pennsylvania created fewer jobs than all but three of the states in the union. We were 47th out of the 50 states,” Rendell said.
Rendell said Pennsylvania’s population is the second oldest in the country.
“It’s not because older people are coming here for our weather,” Rendell said as a light rain fell. “It’s because we are losing our young people. Our young people are voting with their feet.”
Rendell said there is still hope for an economic turnaround in Pennsylvania, but only if the state is willing to invest in the future.
“I know from my experience in Philadelphia what works and what doesn’t work,” Rendell said.
During his tenure as mayor of Philadelphia from 1992-98, Rendell said he eliminated the city’s budget deficit and posted five consecutive surplus budgets. Rendell said he took the city from one that couldn’t attract a major corporation to one that major corporations called seeking development space.
Rendell said it takes investment to stimulate growth, and his plan calls for $2 billion in bonds and loan guarantees over the next three years to encourage a minimum of $5 billion in private investment. The investments will be directed to blighted sites across the state, whether they are urban, rural or suburban.
State Rep. Ted Harhai, D-Monessen, said the Monessen Riverfront Industrial Park is a prime example of an area that could benefit under Rendell’s plan. Harhai said several businessmen expressed interest in developing sites at the park just after hearing that the governor was speaking there. The partially developed industrial development park is the former site of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel and is now in a Keystone Opportunity Zone. Harhai said the KOZ designation gives businesses a number of financial breaks, as well as offering benefits to the community.
“Our project has 10 parcels left where the old blast furnaces were, so that land is heavily contaminated,” Harhai said.
Harhai said brownfield redevelopment funds will be needed to clean up the parcels before they can be used again.
The development plans for the industrial park include a recreational park and community center along the river, on a 26-acre strip of land on the far side of the railroad tracks. Harhai said the $3 million development would be done at no charge to the taxpayers, and as a tax deduction for the commercial developers.
Rendell said there are no guarantees that his economic revitalization plan will work.
“I can guarantee that if we do nothing, Pennsylvania’s economy will continue to fail,” Rendell said.
Rendell said his economic development plans for the state also include the revenue that could be generated by slot machines.
“We have to get slot machines authorized. We are the biggest ostrich in the world when it comes to slots. A million Pennsylvanians leave the state to gamble,” Rendell said.
Rendell said he does not anticipate a Native American casino in Brownsville.
“They need my approval, or they need to win in federal court. Nothing they’ve submitted to us indicates to me they will win,” Rendell said. “If you’re going to have slots in Fayette County, I would think it would be in an area like Nemacolin Woodlands, not Brownsville.”
Rendell said slots revenue is needed to fund education, another investment in Pennsylvania’s future.
“You can’t be a little bit committed to revitalizing this state. You have to be full bore, or you have nothing,” Rendell said.
Rendell said he would like to see the state legislature approve slots at least at the race tracks before closing the current session in July.