COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE HEARING STATE CAPITOL MAIN BUILDING ROOM 140 HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA WEDNESDAY , MARCH 11, 2015 PRESENTATION FROM DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BEFORE: HONORABLE WILLIAM F. ADOLPH , JR., MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE JOSEPH MARKOSEK , MINORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE KAREN BOBACK HONORABLE JIM CHRISTIANA HONORABLE GARY DAY HONORABLE GEORGE DUNBAR HONORABLE GARTH EVERETT HONORABLE KEITH GREINER HONORABLE GLEN GRELL HONORABLE SETH GROVE HONORABLE WARREN KAMPF HONORABLE FRED KELLER HONORABLE TOM KILLION HONORABLE JIM MARSHALL HONORABLE KURT MASSER HONORABLE DAVID R. MILLARD HONORABLE MARK T. MUSTIO HONORABLE MICHAEL PEIFER HONORABLE JEFFREY P. PYLE HONORABLE MARGUERITE QUINN HONORABLE CURTIS G. SONNEY HONORABLE MIKE VEREB ————————— JEAN DAVIS REPORTING 285 EAST MANSION ROAD • HERSHEY, PA 17033 Phone (717)503-6568 1 BEFORE (cont.'d): 2 HONORABLE MATTHEW D. BRADFORD HONORABLE TIM BRIGGS 3 HONORABLE MICHELLE F. BROWNLEE HONORABLE MIKE CARROLL 4 HONORABLE H. SCOTT CONKLIN HONORABLE MARY JO DALEY 5 HONORABLE MADELEINE DEAN HONORABLE MARIA DONATUCCI 6 HONORABLE EDWARD GAINEY HONORABLE JOHN GALLOWAY 7 HONORABLE STEPHEN KINSEY HONORABLE MICHAEL H. O'BRIEN 8 HONORABLE CHERELLE L. PARKER HONORABLE KEVIN SCHREIBER 9 10 ALSO IN ATTENDANCE : 11 DAVID DONLEY, REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RITCHIE LaFAVER, REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 12 CURT SCHRODER, REPUBLICAN CHIEF COUNSEL MIRIAM FOX, DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 13 ANNE BALOGA, DEMOCRATIC CHIEF COUNSEL HONORABLE VANESSA LOWERY BROWN 14 HONORABLE ELI EVANKOVICH HONORABLE ROBERT GODSHALL 15 HONORABLE BARRY JOZWIAK HONORABLE WILLIAM KORTZ 16 HONORABLE JOHN MAHER HONORABLE DAVID PARKER 17 HONORABLE THOMAS QUIGLEY HONORABLE MICHAEL SCHLOSSBERG 18 HONORABLE CRAIG STAATS HONORABLE GREG VITALI 19 HONORABLE JAKE WHEATLEY 20 21 JEAN M. DAVIS, REPORTER NOTARY PUBLIC 22 23 24 25 2 1 I N D E X 2 TESTIFIERS 3 NAME PAGE 4 DENNIS DAVIN, ACTING SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT 8 5 OF COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 6 BRIAN HUDSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 44 PENNSYLVANIA HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY 7 SCOTT DUNKELBERGER, ACTING DEPUTY SECRETARY 75 8 OF BUSINESS FINANCING 9 SHERI COLLINS, ACTING DEPUTY SECRETARY OF 99 TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 * * * 3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH : Good morning , 4 everyone. 5 Before we get into the testimony and the 6 questions, we have a full house here. We 'll just go 7 over some ground rules. 8 Please turn off your iPhones and your iPads. It 9 does interfere with the budget hearings. It is being 10 televised. I'd appreciate your cooperation. 11 We 're going to take just a few minutes to 12 introduce the committee members . We also invited some 13 standing Committee Chairmen related to the department. 14 They have not arrived yet . When they arrive, they will 15 have an opportunity to ask some questions as well. 16 First of all, my name is Bill Adolph . I 17 represent the 165th Legislative District in Delaware 18 County. And I'm the Republican Chair of the House 19 Appropriations Committee. 20 Chairman Markosek . 21 MINORITY CHAIRMAN MARKOSEK : Thank you , Chairman 22 Adolph . 23 I'm State Representative Joe Markosek , 25th 24 Legislative District, Allegheny County. 25 To my right is Sean Brandon, who is our staff 4 1 person from the Appropriations Committee today. 2 REPRESENTATIVE CARROLL: Good morning . I'm Mike 3 Carroll. I represent portions of Lackawanna and Luzerne 4 Counties. 5 REPRESENTATIVE GAINEY: Good morning . State 6 Representative Ed Gainey from the 24th Legislative 7 District, Allegheny County. 8 REPRESENTATIVE PARKER: Representative Cherelle 9 Parker, 200th District, Philadelphia County. 10 REPRESENTATIVE O'BRIEN: Good morning . Mike 11 O'Brien, Philadelphia. 12 REPRESENTATIVE BROWNLEE: Good morning . 13 Michelle Brownlee, 195, Philadelphia. 14 REPRESENTATIVE DALEY: Good morning . Mary Jo 15 Daley, Montgomery County or portions of Montgomery 16 County. 17 REPRESENTATIVE BRIGGS: Good morning . Tim 18 Briggs from Montgomery County. 19 REPRESENTATIVE SCHREIBER: Good morning . Kevin 20 Schreiber from York County. 21 REPRESENTATIVE DONATUCCI: Good morning . Maria 22 Donatucci, 185th District, Philadelphia and Delaware 23 Counties. 24 REPRESENTATIVE DEAN: Good morning . Madeleine 25 Dean from Montgomery County. 5 1 REPRESENTATIVE KINSEY: Good morning . Stephen 2 Kinsey, Philadelphia County. 3 REPRESENTATIVE BOBACK: Good morning . Karen 4 Boback, 117th District, Luzerne, Lackawanna, Wyoming 5 Counties. 6 REPRESENTATIVE MILNE : Duane Milne from Chester 7 County. Good morning . 8 MR . DONLEY: Dave Donley, Republican staff, 9 Executive Director for the committee. 10 MR . SCHRODER: Curt Schroder. Republican staff 11 chief counsel. 12 REPRESENTATIVE MUSTIO : Good morning . Mark 13 Must io, Allegheny County. 14 REPRESENTATIVE GREINER: Keith Greiner, 43rd 15 District, Lancaster County. 16 REPRESENTATIVE PEIFER: Good morning . Mike 17 Peifer, 139th District, Pike and Wayne Counties. 18 REPRESENTATIVE MILLARD : Good morning . David 19 Millard , Columbia County. 20 REPRESENTATIVE DUNBAR: Good morning . George 21 Dunbar, Westmoreland County. 22 REPRESENTATIVE KILLION: Good morning . Tom 23 Killion, Delaware County. 24 REPRESENTATIVE SONNEY: Good morning . Curt 25 Sonney, Erie County. 6 1 REPRESENTATIVE KELLER: Good morning . Fred 2 Keller, 85th District, Union and Snyder Counties. 3 REPRESENTATIVE MASSER : Hello. Kurt Masser , 4 Northumberland , Montour , Columbia Counties. 5 REPRESENTATIVE KAMPF: Warren Kampf, Chester and 6 Montgomery Counties. 7 REPRESENTATIVE PYLE: Good morning . State 8 Representative Jeff Pyle, Armstrong , Butler, and Indiana 9 Counties. Thanks for being here. 10 REPRESENTATIVE MARSHALL : Good morning . Jim 11 Marshall , part s of Beaver County, part s of Butler 12 County. 13 REPRESENTATIVE CHRISTIANA: Good morning . Jim 14 Christiana, other part s of Beaver County and Washington 15 County. 16 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH : Okay. Thank you . 17 As you can see, the House Appropriations 18 Committee certainly is representative of the entire 19 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And I always kid. We are 20 almost the size of the Pennsylvania State Senate. Be 21 prepared for anything. 22 But we're here. And I always re mind the 23 member s, we are all here regarding the budget . 24 It's my pleasure to welcome Acting Secretary 25 Dennis Davin from the Department of Community & Economic 7 1 Development. 2 Mr . Secretary, welcome. If you would, introduce 3 your colleagues to the member s. And you can begin with 4 an opening comment and then we'll go right into some 5 questions. 6 Thank you . 7 ACTING SECRETARY DAVIN: Great. Thank you , 8 Chairman Adolph . 9 To my left is Sheri Collins. She's the Deputy 10 Secretary of Technology and Investment. 11 And to my right, to your left, is Scott 12 Dunkelberger, who is the Deputy Secretary of Business 13 Financing. 14 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH : Thank you . 15 ACTING SECRETARY DAVIN: Chairman Adolph , 16 Chairman Markosek , members of the committee, thank you 17 for the opportunity to provide today's testimony. 18 My name is Dennis Daven, Acting Secretary for 19 the Department of Community & Economic Development. 20 Prior to my appointment by Governor Tom Wolf , I served 21 for more than a decade as the Director of Allegheny 22 County's Department of Community and Economic 23 Development where I was able to see firsthand the 24 positive im pact s and advances that can be made through 25 strategic public and private partnership s in economic 8 1 development. 2 Governor Wolf 's proposed budget will have a 3 noticeable im pact on our ability to create jobs that pay 4 and get the Commonwealth back on track. 5 The truth is, Pennsylvania will not im prove 6 until we re build our middle class. Governor Wolf 's plan 7 reduces taxes to spur economic growth of jobs that 8 support families, invests in education to prepare our 9 kids for the economy of the future, and lessens the 10 total tax burden on middle -class homeowners. 11 We are near the bottom of the country in job 12 growth and we've lacked the vision and leadership to 13 move our economy forward. This budget makes 14 Pennsylvania a place where companies can come, invest, 15 and grow in an environment greatly im proved by cutting 16 the Corporate Net Income Tax by 40 percent in 2015-'16 17 and by 50 percent by 2018 and by finally getting rid of 18 the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax once and for all. 19 It will not be easy to get our economy back on 20 track and re build the middle class, but by taking bold 21 steps and trying new things, we'll grow our economy, 22 create new jobs, and make Pennsylvania a leader in the 23 21st Century. 24 With vision and leadership, we'll make targeted 25 investments in programs proven to work to spur private 9 1 business to create jobs. 2 Manufacturing has been at the heart and soul of 3 many communities. Governor Wolf 's budget build s on that 4 Pennsylvania tradition to create new, good-paying jobs 5 through establishing a Made -in-Pennsylvania Job Creation 6 Program to provide a total of $5 million in tax credits 7 to manufacturing companies that are creating 8 good-pay ing, middle -class jobs and providing $5 million 9 to leverage the talents of our research universities to 10 advance manufacturing technology and commercialization 11 in collaboration with the State's industrial resource 12 centers. 13 Over the past month and a half, I've had the 14 great pleasure to listen and learn from some of the most 15 hardworking individuals I have ever met while meeting 16 with the different program offices at the Department of 17 Community and Economic Development. 18 Unfortunately, over the past few years , this 19 department has seen some devastating budget cuts that 20 have left many of the programs without the critical 21 resources necessary to strengthen our communities and 22 encourage much -needed business development and job 23 creation.