Gov. Josh Shapiro is expected to make good on his campaign promise to Pennsylvanians of investing in local communities and revitalizing Main Streets in his administration’s inaugural budget.
When Shapiro delivers his budget to the General Assembly on Tuesday, he will propose increasing the investment in the Keystone Communities program by more than double the amount his predecessor Gov. Tom Wolf proposed in his final budget last year, according to a Shapiro Administration official.
Shapiro intends to propose more than $15 million for this program as a conversation starter with lawmakers. Last year, Wolf started that conversation by recommending $6.4 million. By the time the budget was enacted, lawmakers, who prioritize this program as a way to deliver money to their districts for revitalization efforts, agreed to provide $37 million for Keystone Communities in this fiscal year.
This program’s stated purpose is to encourage the creation of public-private partnerships that support the growth and stability of neighborhoods. It provides financial assistance for use in community and economic development to provide accessible housing, streetscape improvements, public infrastructure improvements and strengthening downtowns.
Shapiro talked about his desire to aid in those efforts in his inaugural address. He said, “we walked our main streets together and I listened to you. I heard your stories.”
He even highlighted one of those stories that came from an invited guest Jarrod Bets, owner of Mr. Vic’s Family Styling in Lancaster.
“Like so many others,” Shapiro said, “he told me about his dream and built it and now just needs a level playing field to thrive.”
The additional dollars invested in this program are intended to expand the program’s reach to include smaller, rural, and less affluent communities across the state and support more projects like ones he has assisted in the past from aiding in vacant lot cleanups and demolition to sprucing up storefronts.
Michelle Jones, executive director of Perry County Economic Development Authority, was pleased to hear the governor will be calling for more money for this program as a starting point in budget talks. The authority recently became designated as a regional Main Street program with all nine boroughs in the county participating, making it eligible for Keystone Communities funding.
The chance for more money being invested in the program presents a huge opportunity for the authority, Jones said.
“The bill of what we would love to do ... for investing in these nine communities is many millions of dollars and we know that we will be piece-mealing that,” she said. “So this just means more access to be able to do those things that we want to do, that our residents want, that our business owners need. The fact that there could be more funding makes me hopeful that we could benefit from that.”
Among the ways funding from this program have aided projects in southcentral Pennsylvania, money went to support the Center for Independent Living of Central Pennsylvania’s program that provides people with direct care services in their homes; a streetscape improvement in Lancaster’s Elm Street neighborhood; and a plan to re-establish an Enterprise Zone in communities around York to bring economic opportunity and revitalization and strengthen quality of life.
Shapiro last week also shared with a social media influencer that his budget will include a bigger investment in child care to open up more slots, ensure those workers are paid a fair wage, and give parents have safe, reliable places to leave their children so they can return to the workforce.
Shapiro will deliver his budget address in the House of Representatives’ chambers beginning around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.