While our state’s rolling hills, mountains, and diverse topography make Pennsylvania the beautiful state that it is, this can make Pennsylvania a more expensive place to develop industrial sites. As such, the Business in Our Sites (BOS) Program was established in 2004 to provide grant funding for the development of key sites to be used for businesses, private developers and others. As industrial parks often need to be developed on a speculative bases, financial assistance through the BOS Program can help to offset the extraordinary costs of land development and enable Pennsylvania to be far more competitive with flatter states in the region.

As demonstrated, this program can be a wonderful tool to grow business opportunities and help foster economic development in our state. However, this program has not seen an increase in funding since it was established, and I believe we must rectify this by giving the BOS Program the proper investments that it needs to reach its full potential. That is why I will be introducing legislation to increase the amount of funding the Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) can allocate for the BOS Program. Under my bill, the BOS Program would see a $75 million increase in funding, moving from $300 million to $375 million.

This is an investment that will lead to more manufacturing, job creation, and increased state revenue from income, sales, and other taxes. I hope that you will join me in co-sponsoring this legislation to make Pennsylvania a more attractive and competitive state for industrial development.

Statutes/Laws affected:
Printer's No. 0773: 64-1543(b)(1)