The winds of political change flew through the state capitol last fall, as we were the recipients of a new governor. Any time the government changes administrations, new priorities bring new programs for communities across the commonwealth.

The last change in Governors brought us Keystone Communities, which has been a dismal failure.  I am not sure there really is any hope salvaging the program. I know that people like continuity, but the program was really never implemented correctly, and even if it was implemented correctly, I seriously question whether it was a workable program.

The Keystone Communities sounded nice, but the reality was that the staff at the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) was cut back so much that they could not process the applications for designation. Applications languished for months, and in some cases years. This is not about “asking the hard questions.” This is about not having enough people to do the work of the department, and communities on the hook for paying a manager while the review was in process.

One of the first things I noticed about the Keystone Communities when I prepared an application for Castle Shannon was that the manager had to be hired and on staff waiting for the community to be designated. A town like Phillipsburg, with the immensely talented Dana Shoemaker as the manager, had to wait for a long time to get the designation, and at the same time had to pay her salary for a program that required she be on staff before the designation happened. The designation takes forever to process, and the community is the loser. Not because Dana is not one of the best Downtown Managers in the commonwealth, but because the incentives she thought she would work with to develop the downtown were not available to her.

The Keystone Communities does not have salary support but instead gives priority to the funding for façade improvements, anchor building (10,000 square feet or more white elephant) as well as a similar array of grants and loans. There are also 25 percent enterprise zone tax credits, which would be allotted for improvements property owners made in the downtown.

These incentives were not available because of lack of designation, but the money for three years never got out DCED’s door because of the lack of staff to process the applications for funding. I questioned the department head when I saw that the money would be made available just a few months before the last election. I straight out asked what the deal was with the money not going out? I was told it was not some political maneuver but instead… not enough people to process the paperwork.

I did have one issue concerning a project that I was working on in Charleroi, for which I wanted the tax credits, because we were in an Enterprise Zone and I was told that my project would be a lower priority because it was not manufacturing. I asked why they offer the tax credits as a feature of the program if we are second in line for the tax credits? Therefore, even if you did get past the designation issue, the tax credits were not probable.

Additional problems with the program are that it had adopted the main street program and created a template for funding that was not in the spirit with the Main Street Act. All in all, the Keystone Communities program was not a very well thought out or executed program, both on the state level and on the local level.

So where are we now? The number of designated Main Streets is 14, when in the past it has been more than 50, and the way I read the list, there are not any Elm Street (Housing counterpart to Main Street) programs. The program is devastated, the morale of the downtown economic development professionals is at an all time low, and downtown economic development in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has come to a crawl.

A ray of hope has emerged with the new budget by the current governor, which offers increased funding for the programs. I believe the guidelines are under review and there are potential changes coming to rescue the program. Will it be enough? Time will tell, but downtown revitalization is a long-term endeavor and not something that you can turn on and off like a flashlight. It takes time to nurture a downtown program, and for leadership to come forward to gather all the hopes and dreams of the community. 

We place trust in our elected officials to get the job done with competing priorities. My stance is that if you are not going to fund the program properly and not going to administer the program properly, just don’t offer the program.  It is better to have no program than have one that does not work and have the communities gather their hopes and dreams only to see them dashed by an underfunded bureaucracy.

Barry Cassidy is a freelance grant and economic development consultant. He can be reached at barrycassidy@comcast.net.