By Laura Olson
Staff Reporter
Capitolwire
ELIZABETHTOWN (July 9) – The public library and many of the downtown storefronts here were empty on Friday morning, as Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett walked along the main street, talking about his proposals to help each.
When Corbett reached the library for a news conference after meeting with several small business owners, one businessman noted that the library cut back its hours because of state budget cuts.
Dennis Zubler, who co-owns Hornafius Insurance Agency, located across from the downtown library, said the library is like the small businesses next to it along the town’s main street, and “had to close Fridays to stay in business.”
Corbett, who currently serves as the state attorney general, said the state should be re-evaluating its spending priorities, and that providing adequate library funding would be a priority if he is elected governor.
“We’re going to take a serious look at, are we spending our money wisely and in the right places, and are we doing it in the best interest of Pennsylvania, or are we making expenditures in the best interest of re-election?” Corbett said.
Part of that includes re-prioritizing funding for the Department of Community and Economic Development, which Corbett said could be used more efficiently to help downtowns and other revitalization projects.
Elizabethtown Mayor Chuck Mummert said 50 percent of the borough’s downtown storefronts are empty, and were even before the recession tightened the state economy.
“We haven’t gone after those state grants, and we should be,” Mummert said.
Corbett also criticized the funding that is counted on in the recently approved state budget plan. That plan is for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which includes the remaining six-and-a-half months of Gov. Ed Rendell’s term and the first five-and-a-half months of his successor’s term.
“When you have an $800 million guess, is it really done?” asked Corbett, referring to the anticipation of $850 million in federal Medicaid funding that has yet to be approved by Congress. If those dollars are not made available, Rendell and legislative leaders will meet to discuss which line items would be cut.
“We’re going to be redoing this budget with the next governor,” Corbett predicted.
He added: “Counting on the federal government to come through on something is a risky proposition. This is a little bit different from saying we’re going to get X because we always get X.”
Asked about the increase in funds for the Department of Education’s basic K-12 public subsidy, Corbett replied: “I don’t know how we increased spending at all.”
While Corbett said public libraries should be a higher funding priority, new funding for two other libraries – to honor Sen. Arlen Specter and late Congressman John Murtha – did not meet his approval. Those projects are on a list of Rendell’s planned capital projects, which will spend $298 million of the $600 million increase to the state’s economic development borrowing cap.
Corbett said he’s not against all new debt, but that it should be for “prudent uses.”
“There are going to be places where we need to use debt to build things,” Corbett said. “I don’t think it’s a prudent use to be putting $10 million to Specter and Murtha libraries, and I don’t think the general public thinks so either.”
Both he and Onorato have criticized the proposed RACP projects, with Onorato arguing that the proposals should receive more scrutiny of their benefits to the surrounding communities.
In addition to Rendell’s project list, the Legislature will be crafting its own $300 million list of projects by the end of the year.
Before that grant funding is dispersed, the contracts also must pass approval from the Attorney General’s Office. Corbett said his office only can review those contracts “for form and legality, not for policy.”
“I don’t get to sit there like an executive and say, ‘I think that’s a bad grant,’” he said.
Some of the projects do not appear to have the necessary funding in place to receive their state grants – CLICK HERE for an earlier article on that issue. If those contracts are not finalized until after the fall general election, Corbett could be both attorney general and governor-elect as he is reviewing those documents.
Asked Friday about that scenario, Corbett said that situation would not change his office’s oversight role.
“We don’t slow anything down – we normally get things done within 30 days,” he said.
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“Asked about the increase in funds for the Department of Education’s basic K-12 public subsidy, Corbett replied: ‘I don’t know how we increased spending at all.’”
Not increasing State spending for education would mean increased local taxes statewide, as local school districts must fulfill unfunded mandates from the State and Federal governments.
Interesting how Corbett mentioned re-prioritizing DCED spending, specifically mentioning downtown revitalization projects. To date, the DCED has spent or guaranteed more than $60 million Pennsylvania taxpayer dollars for the downtown Lancaster hotel and convention center project. This was promoted as a “revitalization project”, but to date has resulted in minimal downtown economic development, the equivalent of a fraction of the local taxpayer dollars needed to subsidize the ongoing operational losses of the convention center.