May 21, 2004 By James Pletcher Jr. 4 min read

Pennsylvania Secretary of Community and Economic Development Dennis Yablonsky (center) was guest speaker at Fay-Penn Economic Development Council’s 12th annual dinner meeting Thursday at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington. With him is Mike Krajovic, left, Fay-Penn president, and Leo T. Krantz, Fay-Penn chairman. Pennsylvania has a three-pronged plan for economic development that won’t require raising taxes, according to Dennis Yablonsky, secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development.

He outlined the Rendell administration’s program Thursday night, a $7 billion-plus spending package, at Fay-Penn Economic Development Council’s 12th annual dinner meeting at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington.

The major components, Yablonsky said, are creating jobs, revitalizing communities and creating what he called are “shovel-ready’ sites for new business and industry.

Yablonsky said it can all be done without raising taxes. “We can use bond issues to pay for all of it,’ he said, adding that the program calls for $2.3 billion from government sources and $5 billion from private investment.

A businessman in the private sector before joining the Rendell Cabinet, Yablonsky said he realized in order to be successful “you have to stay close to your customer.

“I don’t think we can do public service any differently,’ he said.

“I put 40,000 miles on my state vehicle in the past 14 months to communicate what the governor wants to do to develop the economy but also to listen to what you have to say. We have a good plan now and I want to share that with you,’ he said.

Yablonsky explained the program will use 19 different funding sources, including state and federal money to accomplish its goals of creating jobs, building communities and creating new development sites.

“We are inviting the private sector to join us by adding another $5 billion in investment,’ he said.

“In the past 18 months, because we did not have shovel-ready sites, we lost potential businesses that would have created 4,000 new jobs and about $400 million in investment.

Pennsylvania is 47th out of all 50 states for job growth. We need to do better. Our major export to other states is our 25-to-34 year-olds.

“If we invest in our economy in the next three to four years we can turn this around,’ he said.

By creating “hundreds of new development sites,’ and revitalizing communities where those young people want to “live, work and recreate,’ the state can turn around economically.

“We need to find the areas of growth and preserve what we have in the way of manufacturing jobs,’ he said, which will include balancing the types of jobs the state has.

“We have a top 10 university and college system. We need to use that asset in creating new jobs.’

Admitting that the new state development plan may appear “complicated,’ Yablonsky said that just this week his department announced a new unit within DCED – a Community Action Team – to help non-business projects that involve community or economic development.

Several weeks ago, Rendell came to Uniontown to announce $3.5 million in state funding for downtown revitalization. Yablonsky said that pilot project will help “create the communities and create the incentive’ for business development.

“This is not just a problem in southwestern Pennsylvania but throughout the commonwealth. These new programs will help change that.’

A brief tribute was also offered at the meeting for Fay-Penn founder Robert E. Eberly, who died Wednesday.

“This is our 12th annual dinner. This year is bittersweet,’ Leo Krantz, Fay-Penn chairman said. “Some of you called wondering if we were going to cancel the meeting. But Bob Eberly would not have wanted that,’ he said.

Emotion choking his voice at times, Krantz read a short prayer that Eberly had inscribed on his business cards.

Krantz added that what Fay-Penn has accomplished since 1991 has been due to Eberly, the Eberly Foundation and the Eberly family. “Without them, Fay-Penn wouldn’t exist,’ he said.

Fay-Penn also awarded its annual Eberly Economic Development Award to Laurel Business Institute in Uniontown, owned and operated by Chris and Nancy Decker.