By now we’ve heard that the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Budget (RACP) will fund a public policy center and a library for two of the Commonwealth’s biggest political names and that Allegheny County will get $30 million for a biologics center and $8 million for a green products and research center.
Two other counties in the metro area-Beaver and Washington-will partake of the RACP bonanza. There is $5 million for a mixed-use development in Ambridge and $5 million for a hotel at California University in the bill that itemizes projects funded by the capital budget. If we include Lawrence County as part of the metro-it will get $2 million for expansion of an industrial operations center in New Castle-the southwest PA area is in line for $50 million from the RACP.
That amount is almost half of what the City of Philadelphia is slated to receive under the program at $96.5 million. And though the Governor was quoted in print this week that "all of the RACP projects are legitimate uses of state funds and will be matched with private money" that may not necessarily be true: the state’s budget office notes under its RACP guidelines that 50% of the project cost must be match participation, and "sources of match funds can be local, private, land, and/or federal."