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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
04/19/2024 12:24 PM
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20130&cosponId=14342
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House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: March 19, 2014 11:36 AM
From: Representative Duane D. Milne
To: All House members
Subject: Revise and Extend the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA)
 
In the near future, I will introduce legislation to merge the Small Business First (SBF), Community Economic Development Program (CED), Export Financing Program (EFP), Pollution Prevention Assistance Account Program (PPAA) and Machinery and Equipment Loan Fund (MELF) into the (already-existing) Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA).

The purpose of this proposal is three-fold:
  1. Streamline the loan application process and create a “one-stop shop” for businesses. Currently, businesses must apply for these loan programs through a maze of county economic development organizations, regional area loan organizations as well as directly to DCED. This bill would allow businesses to apply through just one certified economic development organization in order to access all the opportunities of SBF, MELF and PIDA itself.
  2. Implement program revisions that will make these financing programs more useful to businesses and more responsive to an ever-changing economy.
  3. Consolidate these programs to effect more efficient management of these financing programs, and allow Pennsylvania to compete with the kinds of financing programs being put forward by other states.
As one example, our immediate neighboring state to the East, New Jersey, enacted the Economic Opportunity Act in September of 2013. This major piece of legislation overhauled that state’s economic development programs. It consolidated the state’s five main incentive programs into two and is designed to match or exceed the incentive packages being offered by competing states while also providing bonuses (their term, not mine) to drive development to specific areas in the state.

This legislation I am now putting forth is a reformulated version of my HB 1550, which had proposed to create a new entity to be known as the Pennsylvania Business Development Authority (PBDA). In consultation with my legislative colleagues and external stakeholders, a few adjustments have been made to this revised version of what is still intended to achieve the same end goals. Those changes are, namely, the programs to be consolidated will be merged into PIDA, rather than create a new entity, and no programs will be moved over from the Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA). The governance structure of PIDA will not be altered by this legislation.

In our state, Pennsylvania businesses deserve job creation programs that are customer-friendly, easy to access and target funding to meet the needs of the current economic climate. The ability of the Commonwealth to compete in our regional and global marketplaces needs to be expanded, and providing greater flexibility and efficiency in business financing programs is key to doing so.

I invite your partnership of this critical pro-economic development, pro-jobs strategic growth initiative. Thank you.

Introduced as HB1550