17 tax-funded Philly projects on PA's $1.6B list
A long list of projects financed by the General Assembly and Gov. Rendell
There's lots more. Read it here in House Bill 2289. Local projects include:
Bucks County:
$15 million for work at the Keystone Industrial Port Complex in Falls Township
$5 million for "construction, renovation and improvements in the Bucks County enterprise zone" in Bristol Township
Delaware County:
$10 milllion for "blight removal" and reconstruction at Chester's Union Square Neighborhood Revitalization District
$5 million for "the retail development of a 35-acre site in Upper Darby"
Chester County:
Nothing
Montgomery County:
$7.5 million "for a mixed-use commercial/retail development" between Fornance, Wood and Locust Sts. in Norristown
$1.5 milllion for "an industrial facility project allocation"
Philadelphia:
$20 million for the proposed American Revolution Center in Center City, plus $5 million for the Independence Visitor Center a few blocks away
$15 million for "redevelopment" at the former Tasty Baking Co. and "adjacent areas" at Fox and Roberts Sts. in North Philly up towards East Falls
$10 million for a "research/education facility" at Drexel University
$10 million for the Arlen Specter Library and other expansion at Philadelphia University in East Falls
$10 million for developer Robert Amorosi's hotel-retail-housing complex at Fourth and Race
$5 million for "mixed-use development" in South Philly's "Grays Ferry Corridor"
$5 million "for Norris Square Civic Association's Mixed-Use" project in North Philly
$5 million for Aspira Inc., which coaches Latino students and guides them into college, to "develop" the former Cardinal Dougherty High School in Olney
$3 million "for a new Community Legal Services building" to house anti-poverty lawyers.
$750,000 for "campus expansion" at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine on City Line Ave.
Where'd we get the money? We're borrowing it, via state bond issues, Rendell spokesman Gary Tuma told me. A lot of the projects require "matching funds" from private developers. Not all the projects will get built. Some of the money will end up going to other projects. Maybe some will be funded from future bond issues, and future borrowing...