The state Senate Appropriations Committee recently held a hearing with the PA Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED) to discuss how Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed budget cuts potentially could impact job growth, tourism, and business programming.
Wolf’s $43.7 billion proposal includes a 21 percent decrease for DCED.
State Sen. John Yudichak (I- Carbon/Luzerne/Monroe), Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee chairman, urged DCED to intensify job creation efforts. Instead, the state should build on the success of the DCED and the Governor’s Action Team, he said.
The agencies’ investments have helped create 2,300 jobs and $1.2 billion in private investment in northeast Pennsylvania, the state’s top job creation region, according to the Governor’s Action Team’s annual report.
“State resources and incentives often play a key role in closing a deal on an economic development project or attracting a new company to Pennsylvania, but our business tax policies are what will sustain economic progress,” Yudichak said. “We created nearly 10,000 new jobs in Pennsylvania last year, but we lost many new business opportunities because of our high corporate income tax.”
Wolf’s budget proposal allocates $2.4 million for the Invent Penn State program, which has helped nearly 5,000 entrepreneurs create 218 new companies.