Jobs in Pennsylvania Created by Two Projects
The establishment of two new companies will help create more jobs in Pennsylvania. Click here to see more.
Gov. Edward G. Rendell recently announced that Diversapack LLC and Advanced Metal Processing will establish new facilities in Blair County, Pa. Those two projects will help create 185 jobs during the next three years and bring $21 million in total investment to the area.
“These projects are particularly good news now, because our state is struggling through the worst economic recession since the Great Depression and it’s taken its toll,” Rendell said. “In the last year, Pennsylvania’s number of unemployed people has jumped 206,000, pushing our unemployment rate to 8.2 percent. Here in Blair County, that rate is somewhat better at 7.6 percent, but it’s still far higher than the 5.0 percent it was a year ago.
“These numbers show that Pennsylvania and Blair County have fared better than our nation; the U.S. unemployment rate is now at 9.4 percent,” he added. “How have we been able to do that? By investing in ourselves - in our communities, in our employers, and in our workforce.”
Diversapack LLC manufactures and prints flexible films for packaging. The company will receive $3.2 million in state funding to open a state-of-the-art film manufacturing facility in Tyrone. The $7 million project will create 150 jobs during the next three years.
Advanced Metal processing, a secondary aluminum recycling business, will receive $1.5 million in state funding to open an innovative facility in Hollidaysburg. The $13.8 million project will create at least 35 jobs during the next three years.
The Governor’s Action Team helped coordinate the projects. That group has completed 20 projects in Blair County during Rendell’s administration, leveraging more than $88 million in private investment. Of those projects, 17 included opportunity grants as part of the state’s funding offer and 14 included customized job training, two programs used to help attract Diversapack and Advanced Metal Processing.
The current budget set forth by the Senate Republicans will eliminate the opportunity grant program and cut the customized job training program. It also would eliminate the infrastructure development program that was used in the Advanced Metal Processing investment package.
“Make no mistake – we must make cuts to the budget, and we are,” Rendell said. “I have proposed $2 billion in cuts over the last year, but I will not stand by and allow cuts that threaten our ability to dig ourselves out of this recession and compete in the long-run. Instead, we simply must find more revenues. That’s why I have put forth a plan that is balanced and, I believe, fair.”
Rendell’s plan includes a proposed increase on cigarette tax, a tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco, and a tax on companies that drill for gas and oil in the State of Pennsylvania. These actions together would not generate enough money to balance out the state’s $3.2 billion budget deficit, so Rendell also is proposing a temporary increase in state income tax, which is currently the second lowest in the country. The temporary increase would expire in 2012.
© 2009