Grants OK’d by Rendell rapped

HARRISBURG — During his last three months in office, Gov. Ed Rendell approved almost $488 million worth of projects financed through state borrowing, about a third of them in Philadelphia, where Rendell was mayor.

The largest grant was $20 million to refurbish Lackawanna County Baseball Stadium, where a New York Yankees farm team will play. Three Philadelphia projects each received $10 million, including a corporate headquarters for brokerage firm Janney Montgomery Scott LLC. Smaller projects included $3 million for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender senior housing center in Philadelphia and $500,000 for a Kohl’s store in Lycoming County.

“I think we should shut down the program,” said House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Bradford Woods. State government, he said, “is not a venture capital bank or a philanthropy.”

Taxpayers will pay about $33 million a year for 20 years to finance the projects, according to the governor’s office.

Rendell leaves office Tuesday. His spokesman, Gary Tuma, said the governor chose the projects from a list initially approved by the Legislature because they create jobs and stimulate local economies. Some lawmakers who oppose the spending “are all smiles and often come to the ribbon cuttings,” Tuma said.

“Pennsylvania has been trying to bribe businesses to come or stay here for decades, and it’s been an utter failure,” said Matthew Brouillette, president of the Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative policy group.

Certainly some of the projects — hospitals, venues for the arts and community restoration — have merit, Turzai said. But he said any project the state funds should be a line item in the budget and not funded with borrowed money.

“Either you have the money to pay for them, or you don’t,” Turzai said. He doubts the House will approve any new legislation to continue the program through which the projects were approved.

Allegheny County received $51.4 million, the second-largest amount of any county and 10.5 percent of the total. Many of the Pittsburgh projects were previously announced. Most of the rest on the state were not.

Not all of the 335 grants have signed contracts, Tuma said.

Incoming Republican Gov.-elect Tom Corbett has said he will review every project that isn’t “signed, sealed and delivered.”

“It’s not something taxpayers should foot the bill for,” said Harrisburg activist Gene Stilp. “In the end, this governor will be known as a ‘wuss’ because he was basically a wuss on reform,” he said, playing off Rendell’s nationally publicized comments two weeks ago that the country has become “a nation of wusses.”

“In all cases, the administration approves projects because they provide job creation or retention,” Tuma said. “Beyond that there can be economic benefits for a community.”

Staff writer Brian Bowling contributed.

where the money went

A New York Yankees minor league baseball stadium in Lackwanna County and a brokerage firm’s corporate headquarters in Philadelphia are among the projects Gov. Ed Rendell has approved in the past three months, records show. Rendell, who leaves office Tuesday, released almost $488 million worth of projects financed through borrowed state money and tax dollars since October. About about one-third or almost $162 million went to Philadelphia, where Rendell served as mayor.