LVPA Inappropriate Use of RCAP Funds

In today's economy local municipalities have been forced to compete more than ever for new development and business expansion.  A popular program in Pennsylvania for securing financial assistance for new development is the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program or RCAP.  The program dates back to 1986 and awards state grants competitively based on a number of factors.  Most importantly are the number of direct (permanent, non-construction) jobs created by the project, number of indirect (permanent) jobs created by support/supplier industries and secondary industries attracted by the project, project's potential to enhance regional vitality and total state and local tax generation (payroll, sales, corporate, etc.) to name a few.
In the most recent round of funding 59 of 180 projects were funded.  Locally 3 of 7 projects received funding.  One of those, the Lehigh valley Charter High School for the Arts (LVPA), was awarded $3 million toward the construction of their new high school in south Bethlehem.  Based on the RCAP guidelines found here I am not sure how this project was funded.  LVPA will not pay any property tax, create additional jobs, or attract local business to the area.  It's simply a school moving into a new facility 1 mile from the current facility.  In contrast another locally funded project was $5 million for the new Majestic development on former brownfields along RT 412 in Bethlehem.  This will aid with infrastructure work in the ever growing $1 billion new industrial development.  Some local projects not being funded are the new RT 33 interchange project that will create access to undeveloped land along the highway in Palmer twp.  This will undoubtedly create hundreds of millions of dollars in new development, and create both construction and permanent family sustaining jobs.  Another unfunded project was a request for assistance with a new municipal parking facility in South Bethlehem.  One of the biggest complaints of South Bethlehem business owners is the lack of parking.  Clearly these two unfunded projects would have had a major impact on the local economy. 

At the most recent city council meeting I attended to speak out against the City of Bethlehem serving as a sponsor and pass through entity for the RCAP Grant awarded by Governor Corbett to LVPA.  In 2000 the city, county and school district partenerd in the BethWorks TIF to encourage redevelopment of the former Bethlehem Steel land.  The fact is not much happened as a result of this TIF until 2009 when the Sands Casino Resort came online.  With the property tax revenue now including the hotel, mall, and table games the Bethlehem Area SD is committed to forgoing over $30 million in tax revenue.  The majority of this money has been spent to build the public areas surrounding the ArtsQuest campus at Steel Stacks, and most recently the redevelopment of the Hoover-Mason Trestle.  The BASD is proud to support these projects as a way to attract local, for profit business to fill out the TIF zone.  This investment has made South Bethlehem the jewel of the Lehigh Valley.
 
It's becasue of this major investment that the BASD opposes the new LVPA high school being built in the TIF zone and receiving RCAP money to aid in the construction.  This will take a prime piece of land off the tax rolls permanently.  There will be no future income generated by this piece of land once slated for class A office space.  More importantly the new building will allow the school to expand and add up to 200 more students.  If half of those students come from the BASD it will cost local taxpayers an additional $1 million per year.  Also don't forget the mortgage on this new $27 million school will be paid with BASD money.  They only steady stream of income for LVPA is the per pupil money it receives from the BASD and other sending school districts.  I  certainly do not oppose the schools right to purchase land and construct a more efficient building, but I do not want to provide an incentive to locate in a TIF zone. 
The fact is this project should not have received RCAP funding in the first place.  Public schools, and yes charters are public schools, are excluded from applying for RCAP funding.  These projects are signed off by the Governor and this stinks of politics.  As most are aware the BASD is in the early planning stages for a new Nitschmann MS.  We have lowered the cost from an estimated $64 million to just over $53 million dollars.  We have used surplus and one time revenues to pay as much as possible with cash, and finance as little as possible.  We hope to put down between $5 and $8 million saving taxpayers interest payments.  In the past the state had a construction rebate program called PlanCon.  PlanCon would have allowed the BASD to receive approximately $7 million for the project from the state.  This program, however, was placed in moratorium indefinitely.  So while local distrcits struggle to maintain, and build new, more effiecient facilities without the help of the state, public charters are receiving economic redevelopment dollars that should have been used for real economic redevelopment.
This is yet another example of what appears to be an attack on traditional public education in Pennsylvania. 
I wonder what the odds are of the BASD receiving an RCAP grant for Nitschmann.  What's fair is fair, right?