Businesses get ready to take lead role in post-COVID Pennsylvania

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Pennsylvania business leaders are urging their colleagues to band together and take a leadership role in getting the state back to a new normal after being largely derailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The PA Chamber of Business and Industry and its allies in the legislature spent the week generating enthusiasm among the business community to present an aggressive and united front in deciding the regulatory future for the commonwealth once the virus is under control.

“Who better to lead the charge to improve the lives of all Pennsylvanians than the business community?” Chamber President & CEO Gene Barr said Thursday on a Chamber webinar highlighting its “Bringing PA Back” initiative.

The initiative features a helpful roster of ideas and actual legislation that has been introduced in the capital aimed at assisting battered companies in emerging from the pandemic faster and better prepared for a business environment that will be different than the one that existed a year ago. “The policies and the decisions made by our elected officials will have a long-term impact on the future of Pennsylvania,” Barr said, adding that Bringing PA Back was aimed at “filling a leadership void,” and identifying “strategic long-term policies that will propel Pennsylvania forward and improve outcomes for every resident of the state.”

“Our approach will be driven by sound policy and not by politics,” Barr vowed.

Michael Carney, senior vice president of Emerging Issues at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, said the coming weeks would be a “hinge moment” for businesses as they pivot toward a still-uncertain future. “If I were a business owner, I would not be making any five-year plans right now,” he told the online audience. “I would make an 18-month plan so I will be in a position to come up with a five-year plan.”

The Bring PA Back agenda seeks changes to an assortment of regulations aimed at giving struggling businesses an opportunity to get back on their feet as the Wolf administration gradually gives the all-clear to reopen the economy. They range from extending permit application deadlines and tax credits for remote workers to blocking unemployment benefits for workers who have quit their jobs or otherwise refused to work amid the pandemic.

Lawmakers have already been hard at work in western Pennsylvania with legislation they say will set the stage for a new phase of expansion of the economy that will be based on a skilled workforce and a readily available supply of nearby natural gas that is expected to bring in new manufacturing jobs.

“It needs to not just be ‘jobs’; it has to be the right kind of jobs, ones that pay,” Rep. Josh Kail, (R-Beaver, Washington) said earlier in the week on a separate webinar produced by the industry association Think About Energy.

The idea of Pennsylvania entering a new phase of industrial glory is based on factors that still exist: ample energy supplies, a large skilled-trades workforce, and a strategic location, which includes vacant brownfield sites adjacent to rail, water and highway transportation that are primed for development.

Proponents of Bring PA Back see a critical need for thoughtful pro-business changes in the regulatory environment that will more closely match what they consider a more accommodating philosophy in neighboring states. “Instead of rolling out the red carpet like they do in West Virginia and Ohio, we roll out the red tape,” said Rep. Jonathan Fritz (R-Susquehanna/Wayne).

The upheaval caused by the pandemic is likely to alter the business landscape permanently in some areas, particularly with expanded telecommuting that could potentially put a long-term damper on urban business districts, but also boost the fortunes of small towns and suburbs. For that reason, businesses require a high level of flexibility and nimbleness, which in turn, requires greater flexibility among government regulators and local officials.

Barr said the Bring PA Back program was entering a new phase that included ramping up outreach to Harrisburg and to the public through polling and an interactive digital platform that will compare Pennsylvania’s current regulatory status and its progress on key business issues with its competitor states.

Barr summed up the task ahead as “a massive undertaking requiring the coordination of our collective resources and influence to bring about the changes that we need, the change every Pennsylvanian deserves.”