Latest news with #Siger
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pennsylvania officials visit State College to tour cancer research facility
CENTRE COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — The Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Rick Siger and other local representatives got the chance to tour Atlas Biotech, which looks to help those battling cancer. Atlas Biotech was founded in 2023 by Josh Reynolds, a PhD student at Penn State. Reynolds was a student at Texas A&M University before moving to Penn State. While in Texas, his grandfather passed away from cancer. Penn Highlands Clearfield raises flag in support of organ donation 'The idea is to really just design better drugs for cancer patients. Right now, we're focusing on drug resistance, so we're looking at leukemia specifically. Chronic myeloid leukemia is the main case we study here,' Reynolds said. 'My grandfather passed away when I was in school there. I had to watch that process of him going through different rounds of therapies and then eventually succumbing to the disease. And that's one of the impacts a lot of people across the world.' For the Department of Community and Economic Development, innovation, businesses, and entrepreneurs help grow Pennsylvania's economy as well as try to make everyone healthier. 'Like I said a minute ago, this is about economic growth, It's about entrepreneurs succeeding. And in the case of life sciences in particular, and companies like Atlas, it's about life-saving technologies that can be produced and deployed right here in Pennsylvania,' Siger said. State Representatives Scott Conklin and Paul Takac joined Siger on the tour. Takac says that Innovations like this is going to make Pennsylvanians healthier and more prosperous in the future. Conklin says Centre County is a leader in this industry, and he is happy to see companies start and grow while staying in the area. 'Whether it's in Penns Valley or Phillipsburg or State College, this is what makes Center County home. And I really feel sorry when I heard the secretary talking about places around the state that they have to be second best to us. But that's what it's about, we thrive to be number one because we believe in the people that are here,' Conklin said. Siger mentioned that Gov. Josh Shapiro is proposing a $50 million investment in innovation in the proposed budget. 'We have the opportunity right now with the governor's proposed budget to double down on innovation, with the proposed investment of $20 million in an innovation fund and $30 million focused on life sciences innovation, for a total of $50 million,' Siger said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pennsylvania's economic development leader speaks in Orwigsburg
Schuylkill County is among many Pennsylvania communities moving in the right direction thanks to a combination of state funding and coordinated planning at the local and commonwealth levels, state Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Rick Siger said during a visit to Orwigsburg on Tuesday. But more work needs to be done, said Siger, who presented highlights of the 10-year economic development strategy for Pennsylvania that he recently played a key role in devising. It is Pennsylvania's first such plan in nearly two decades. The strategy focuses on funding and planning for agriculture, energy, life sciences, manufacturing, and robotics and technology in an effort to support small businesses, spur innovation, and strengthen local communities, he said. 'This is a blueprint for action,' Siger said of the plan while speaking at the Orwigsburg Veterans Community Memorial Hall during a Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Siger was introduced by chamber president and CEO Robert S. Carl Jr., who pointed out that hall they were in was a great example of how the state and local governments can work together to improve communities. More than $700,000 from DCED was among the $2.65 million in grants that helped make the building what it is, combined with almost $900,000 in contributions from local businesses and donations, he said. 'This really is a team sport,' Siger agreed about economic development. Recent developments in Schuylkill he highlighted were the ribbon-cutting for the $100 million Hydro Extrusion expansion in Cressona, a $750,000 investment for a 75,000-foot spec building in Highridge Business Park, a $300 million expansion of EMD Electronics near Tamaqua, a $250,000 investment into the Tamaqua historic district and $1.6 million transferred into Tamaqua's Community Revitalization and Improvement Zone. * State Senator David Argall speaks during a Schuylkill County Chamber of Commerce event at the Orwigsburg Veterans Community Memorial Hall, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) * Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Rick Siger speaks during a Schuylkill County Chamber of Commerce event at the Orwigsburg Veterans Community Memorial Hall, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) * Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Rick Siger speaks during a Schuylkill County Chamber of Commerce event at the Orwigsburg Veterans Community Memorial Hall, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) * Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Rick Siger speaks during a Schuylkill County Chamber of Commerce event at the Orwigsburg Veterans Community Memorial Hall, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) * State Representative Jamie Barton speaks during a Schuylkill County Chamber of Commerce event at the Orwigsburg Veterans Community Memorial Hall, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) Show Caption 1 of 5 State Senator David Argall speaks during a Schuylkill County Chamber of Commerce event at the Orwigsburg Veterans Community Memorial Hall, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR) Expand Gov. Josh Shapiro's 2025-26 state budget plan includes proposed funding for the economic development strategy Siger helped create, including: * A $500 million investment statewide for site development work over three years, including $125 million in the upcoming fiscal year. * A $20 million investment for the Main Street Matters program to support small businesses and commercial corridors. * Creation of the $10 million AdvancePA tax credit to create jobs. * Increased funding for marketing to attract and retain businesses, support companies, train new workers and help veterans establish and grow small businesses. * A $50 million investment in the PA Innovation Fund to foster life science and technology-related businesses. * Funding to help plan and orchestrate the nation's 250th anniversary in Pennsylvania. The plan also includes a housing action to address the state's aging housing stock, its varying zoning ordinances and administration of housing programs across the state, Siger said. 'Pennsylvania has really old housing,' he said, an issue that is critical for the state to address. Counties like Schuylkill, he said, could therefore benefit from the opportunities the plan provides. 'Housing is a moral imperative,' he said, calling it an economic necessity in attracting and keeping employers. The proposed budget was drafted by Shapiro, a Democrat, and still needs to pass a legislature in which the House has a slight Democrat majority, and the Senate is led by Republicans. So Siger said he knows the budget could undergo changes before final passage. But the need for economic development is something both parties agree on, he said, and he is optimistic that the initiatives and funding outlined in his strategy will go through. 'They are bipartisan, commonsense solutions,' he said.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
1000s in limbo as Shapiro admin again tries to convince lawmakers to fund home repairs program
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Republican concerns about state spending could keep $50 million to help Pennsylvania homeowners with the cost of major repairs out of this year's budget, despite overwhelming demand and bipartisan support for a similar initiative several years ago. In 2022, state lawmakers created the Whole-Home Repairs Program and funded it with $125 million in federal pandemic aid. Demand was overwhelming, leaving thousands of homeowners on waitlists. Two previous attempts to continue the program with state funding were unsuccessful. In 2023, another $50 million for the repair program was included in the state budget, but became ensnared in the political impasse over Shapiro's veto of funding for private school vouchers. In last-minute negotiations over a compromise, the repair program 'got lost in the shuffle,' state Sen. David Argall (R., Schuylkill) told Spotlight PA at the time. In 2024, Shapiro again proposed more funding for the home repair program, but it was left out of the final budget deal altogether. State Sen. Nikil Saval, a progressive Democrat from Philadelphia who first proposed the initiative, told Spotlight PA that some of the opposition sprang from Senate Republicans' reluctance to replace one-time federal funding with state dollars. The Shapiro administration is now pitching a new home repair program, though officials have declined to explain exactly how it would be different. 'It's not just, like, a new name for Whole-Home Repairs, it is a new program,' Rick Siger, secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development, told lawmakers during a budget hearing in February. In another hearing, Siger said the new program would build on lessons from the earlier effort, 'but really starting afresh.' He said the department had listened to state lawmakers' feedback. While the funding was highly sought after, some of the earlier program's more ambitious policy goals — like ensuring that landlords did not raise rents above a certain level after receiving funding for repairs — proved difficult to implement. After the program closed, around 18,000 households statewide were left on waiting lists. The proposed $50 million could serve roughly 2,500 households per year, Siger said. Homes across the commonwealth could use the help, as Pennsylvania has some of the oldest housing stock in the U.S. Almost 60% of houses were built before 1970, Gov. Josh Shapiro said in his budget address. The Democrat is framing the request as part of his statewide housing strategy, which is still under development. A task force, created by executive order last fall, has already held more than a dozen listening sessions on the issue across the state, Siger told lawmakers. 'There's a lot of energy around the idea that Pennsylvania has to invest in our existing housing stock,' he said. Whether the proposed repair program makes it into a final budget deal this year will depend on negotiations in the coming months between the Shapiro administration, the Democratic-controlled state House, and the GOP-majority Senate. The latter seems unlikely to get on board. 'With such a large demand for new spending and unrealistic consideration as to the impact for future years, at this point it's hard to see how such a program could be funded,' said Kate Flessner, a spokesperson for state Senate Republicans. Republican lawmakers argue that the spending increases in Shapiro's proposed budget, which would boost state spending by 8% over the current year, are unsustainable. If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Shapiro administration taking ‘aggressive wait and see' approach to federal funding freeze
State Rep. Abigail Salisbury (D-Allegheny) speaks during a House Appropriations Committee budget hearing with Community and Economic Development Secretary Rick Siger on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (House Democrats photo) The Trump administration's planned spending cuts have Pennsylvania officials waiting for further guidance on frozen or cuts in funding for health, housing and energy programs, the state's top economic development official told state House lawmakers Tuesday. Gov. Josh Shapiro's office has sued five federal agencies, alleging that Pennsylvania is unable to access $1.2 billion in federal grant funding appropriated by Congress and that another $900 million is being held up in an undefined review process. Other federal agencies have announced plans to cut funding, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which said it will slash its allowance for administrative costs in research programs. 'There are many executive orders, public statements, that have lacked the clarity we need,' Rick Siger, the secretary of community and economic development, said during a wide-ranging three-hour hearing on the department's $2.3 billion request, an 11% increase over the current budget. The White House published a memo Tuesday afternoon to the heads of federal executive departments and agencies instructing them to make public 'the complete details of every terminated program, cancelled contract, terminated grant, or any other discontinued obligation of federal funds. 'For too long, taxpayers have subsidized ideological projects overseas and domestic organizations engaged in actions that undermine the national interest,' the memo says. 'The American people have seen their tax dollars used to fund the passion projects of unelected bureaucrats rather than to advance the national interest.' State Rep. Abigail Salisbury (D-Allegheny) asked in a House Appropriations Committee hearing how that could impact Pennsylvania's economy. The University of Pittsburgh and University of Pennsylvania are among the top recipients of NIH funding, Salisbury noted. The innovation of Pennsylvania's life sciences research centers is critical to Pennsylvania's economic success, Siger told committee members, and that's where the commonwealth is most competitive. 'You could not, with all the funding in the world, start from scratch and create the research enterprise that we have here,' Siger said. In a memo earlier this month, the NIH said it would cap facilities and administrative costs for research grants at 15% of a research grant, noting that the average reported by NIH was about 28%. The health research community urged the agency to reconsider the policy change. 'This abrupt decision jeopardizes lifesaving research and threatens to undermine the foundation of academic public health,' the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health said in a statement. Siger said the cuts could 'leave Pennsylvania at a really significant competitive disadvantage,' resulting in job losses as a result of funding cuts to ''the most powerful economic engines in our state.' Asked whether DCED, which is charged with boosting innovation and business development, could step in to ease the impact of federal cuts, Siger said the administration is working on an 'aggressive wait and see' basis and is in contact with universities and others who might be affected by cuts. 'We've got to await certainty and guidance from federal agencies here, and once that occurs, we'll assess the impact on Pennsylvania specifically and on our universities as required by law,' Siger said. DCED is a named plaintiff in the Shapiro administration's lawsuit in large part because of its home weatherization program, which relies on funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to help low-income families make improvements to reduce their energy costs, Siger said. According to the lawsuit, DOE has subjected a $186 million grant for the program to an 'unidentified agency review' before it will approve the state's claims for reimbursement. The suit says two energy efficiency grants for low-income households through the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection are subject to similar review requirements. 'The inability to receive those federal funds will, I think, fundamentally invalidate our ability to take care of working class folks who spend a disproportionate share of their salary and their income on heating and cooling their home in the summer,' Rep. Joshua Siegel (D-Lehigh) said.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pennsylvania lawmakers grill leaders over spending as budget hearings commence
(WHTM) — Governor Josh Shapiro laid out a $51.4 billion budget proposal earlier this month, and now state lawmakers are questioning department heads trying to justify their funding requests in today's budget hearings. 'It's really an opportunity for members of both parties to ask different department heads questions that they might not get to ask in other settings,' said Rep. Ben Waxman (D-Philadelphia). 'It's our chance to kind of go into the nitty gritty details of what they're asking for,' added Rep. Torren Ecker (R-Adams/Cumberland). The pressure is on for secretaries like Rick Siger of the Department of Community and Economic Development. 'Your boss, the Governor, is on the record saying that he hates to lose to Ohio,' Rep. John Lawrence (R-Chester County) said to Siger regarding a pyrex plant in Western PA planning to move to Ohio, causing the loss of 300 jobs. 'What efforts have you made and are you making to try and keep the Pyrex plant open?' 'To my knowledge, we did not get to a point where there was an offer,' Siger responded. Lawrence focused on a $2.5 million state grant Pyrex got in 2018. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now 'Will the governor's administration be looking to claw that two and a half million dollars back?' asked Lawrence. 'The two and half million dollars was granted prior to my time as secretary from a department that I don't run,' Siger responded. 'I think it's ridiculous,' Lawrence said in an interview with abc27. 'I think the Pennsylvania taxpayer shouldn't be asked to subsidize a plant that's going to turn around, close the equipment, and go to Ohio.' Pennsylvania receives lots of money from D.C., and President Donald Trump is vowing to spend less. Democrats on the committee are worried. 'You're talking about a total dismantling of health systems, a total dismantling of educational systems, total dismantling of a whole lot of systems that actually make our nation work,' said Rep. Jordan Harris (D), the Chair of the House Appropriations Committee. Republicans, not so much. 'What President Trump is trying to do is looking at government from top to bottom and seeing how money is being pushed out because we're spending money like crazy at the federal government,' said Rep. Ecker. Many argue excessive spending is occurring at the state level, as well, hence the hearings. The final budget is due on June 30. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
