Ben,

 

Awesome job the other day.

 

Below is an option for the Getting Started box.

 

Following the Getting Started option is draft text for the further people would click to from Getting Started.

 

Some editing once the map is finalized is unavoidable.  But I’m trying to come as close as I can to finalizing text.  It’s that time.

 

Steve

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Help

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

·         Who Created the Map

·         The Data

·         What We Did When More than One Subsidy Had the Same Location

·         Using the Map

·         Using the Toolbar

·         What are Company, Multi-Company and Industrial Park Programs?

·         Infrastructure Development Program (IDP)

·         Opportunity Grant Program (OGP)

·         Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority Program (PIDA)

·         How to Provide Feedback to Improve the Data

 

KEY INFORMATION ON THE MAP

 

WHO CREATED THE MAP

This map results from a pioneering collaboration between Keystone Research Center and Advanced Technology Solutions (ATS), Incorporated of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.   While KRC brings data analytic capability to the partnership, ATS brings state-of-the-art knowledge of interactive, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software.   KRC and the Brookings Institution take their hats off to ATS for its willingness to invest time and internal resources in this important application.  For more on ATS, including the ability of ATS and KRC to marry the power of the web with cutting edge socio-economic data analysis, please contact Ashis Pal (mailto:apal@atsincorp.com) or Ben Lewis (mailto:blewis@atsincorp.com) at:

 

Advanced Technology Solutions, Inc.

1525 Oregon Pike, Suite 202

Lancaster, PA 17601

Phone (717) 399-7007

http://www.atsincorp.com/                               

 

 

THE DATA

The data base consists of a list of 1333 projects that received economic development assistance from PIDA, OGP, or IDP between 1998 and the first part of 2003.  The list of projects we analyzed comes from a 119-page electronic “PressReport” sent by DCED to KRC on May 7, 2003.  Since this file did not contain complete information on all projects, and in particular did not contain the address of the business location receiving the subsidy in many cases, we augmented the DCED Press Report using other web-based and print sources.  Even with this augmentation, we could only identify an exact address for 51 percent of the projects.  In all but 16 of the 1333 cases, we were able to identify or infer at least the municipality of the business site receiving assistance.  The Table below profiles our data base. 

 

Profile of Data Base on Three Major Pennsylvania Economic Development Programs, July 1, 1998- May 6, 2003*

 

 

Opportunity Grant Program

Infrastructure Development Program

Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority Program

Total

Number of Projects

661

248

424

1333

Amount of Assistance (millions of dollars)

$216.1

$165.6

$337.8

$719.5

Number of Projects for which Site Address Identified

294

224

157

675

Percent of Projects for which Site Address Identified

44%

90%

37%

51%

Number of Projects for which Site Municipality Identified

646

248

423

1317

Percent of Projects for which Municipality Identified or Inferred (to nearest percent)

98%

100%

100%

99%

Amount of Assistance (millions of dollars) for which Municipality Identified or Inferred

$212.7

$165.6

$337.6

$715.9

Percent of Assistance for which Municipality Identified or Inferred

98%

100%

100%

99%

*Source: Keystone Research Center (KRC) based on Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) data and other publicly available information from the internet.

 

In generating latitude and longitude coordinates to permit mapping of sites receiving assistance, we placed projects with only a site municipality identified at or near the center of the municipality.  This and other reasons led to significant number of locations in which we had more than one project.  For how we dealt with this, see the next item.  For a fuller discussion of the database behind the MAP, see the data section of the KRC Report.

 

 

WHAT WE DID WHEN MORE THAN ONE SUBSIDY HAD THE SAME LOCATION

In creating a map, a challenge exists when more than one point you want to display has exactly the same location.  In the KRC MAP database, the same location may have multiple points for three reasons.

·         The same company, industrial park, or multi-company site may receive more than one subsidy from the same program and/or at least one subsidy from two or three programs.

·         At industrial park or multi-company sites, the site as a whole may receive a subsidy in addition to one or more tenants.

·         In the cases where our database contains the municipality of the business site but not the exact address, our first choice was to display the business site at a specific point near the center of the municipality.   (If DCED begins to make the address of the business site part of its basic reporting system, this problem will no longer exist.)

 

For one or more of these three reasons, specific locations may have many different subsidies associated with them. 

Please see the diagram below to understand how the KRC MAP displays multiple project IDs for a single original location.

 

 

A RED vertical line is used to connect project points which share a single location.
 

One project exists for this location.
 

The actual location point for all projects is defined using RED text.

 

 

 

 

USING THE MAP

The information available through the MAP shows how subsidies distributed from three major Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) economic development programs (the Opportunity Grant Program (OGP), the Infrastructure Development Program (IDP), and the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA) Program ) are to older communities (cities, boroughs, and first-class townships) and new communities (second-class townships). The information is based on an analysis of projects funded by the three programs from July 1, 1998 to May 6, 2003.

 

·         To get a good sense of how many business subsidy dollars go to different communities – relative to their population – users can choose the per capita option on the left-side of the page. (This layer is on by default).  In the state as a whole, older and newer Pennsylvania receive business subsidies almost exactly in proportion to their share of the population.  In some metropolitan areas (e.g., Philadelphia, Allentown), however, the tilt of business subsidies is heavily toward the suburbs.  In others (e.g., Lancaster), the city gets more assistance per capita.  Almost everywhere, inner-ring suburbs – “first-class townships” – get much less than their share of state dollars on a per capita basis. 

o        Use the zoom options or select your county or a metropolitan area for a map showing the per capita geographic distribution of subsidies in your part of the state. 

o        When a county, metropolitan area, or municipality is selected, a box will appear that gives the option of selecting a “Report” on the area.  If you click on Report, it will give you exactly the total dollar and per capita assistance in that area under each program.  The area report also compares these figures with the stateas a whole.

 

·         To learn more about specific business subsidies in your community, you have several options. 

o        Select county, metro area, or municipality to bring up a box showing all subsidies in the selected area.  (By default project location display is OFF.)  For any individual subsidy, you can then click on the Project Identifier in the box. This will give you the amount of the subsidy, which program it came from, and the most precise information we have on the location of the business site receiving the subsidy.  In all but 16 out of 1333 cases, this location is an address or a municipality.

o        Use the toolbar of navigation tools and the cursor to bring up on the screen an area of interest. In this case, the box that appears will show all business subsidies received by the geographical area currently displayed by the map.  Once again, you can click on specific subsidies to learn about their size, source, and, in some cases, exact address.

o        Use the search option to scan all of the fields in our data base for a match.  For example, you can enter a company (e.g., Sheetz), or a street name, and Search will bring up all projects that match the name you entered. In some cases, there will be no match. BE AWARE that our data base only contains subsidies from three state business assistance programs, albeit the three most important in terms of dollars of loan or grant assistance. The DCED Investment Tracker (www.inventpa.org) is a more comprehensive source of information on subsidies from a longer list of DCED programs.  For more information click on links below.

 

DCED Investment Tracker: http://www.inventpa.com/default.aspx?id=204

 

IDP: http://www.inventpa.com/default.aspx?id=292

 

OGP: http://www.inventpa.com/default.aspx?id=294

 

PIDA: http://www.inventpa.com/default.aspx?id=273

 

 

USING THE TOOLBAR

This application currently supports Internet Explorer 5.1 or greater.
 

Identify(Query): Click on this button, then on the map feature to view attribute information for the selected feature.

Zoom In: Click on this button, then click on the map,(or drag a box), to zoom in.

Zoom Out: Click on this button, then click on the map,(or drag a box), to zoom out.

      

Statewide View: Click on this button to return to the statewide view.

Recenter: Click on this button, then click on the map at the location where you would like the map recentered.

Print: Click on this button to print the current map view. User may provide title for map.

Help: Click on this button to display this help document.

Tips For Using this Application:

 


WHAT ARE COMPANY, MULTI-COMPANY, AND INDUSTRIAL PARK SUBSIDIES?

The Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA) program gives out loans in three categories – to industrial parks, multi-company sites, and to individual companies.  This classification scheme makes it possible to display loans in each of these categories separately, as on our MAP.  The Opportunity Grant Program (OGP) and the Infrastructure Development Program (IDP) also give subsidies to industrial parks, multi-company sites, and individual businesses.  Unlike PIDA, however, OGP and IDP do not report loans to industrial parks and multi-company sites separately from loans to single companies.  For that reason, OGP and IDP points on the map do not distinguish assistance in these three categories.

 

 

INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (IDP)

IDP is governed by the 1996 Infrastructure Development Act, as amended.  In practice, almost all IDP funds are distributed as grants, which must be used for publicly owned infrastructure improvements.  (Our data base contains two IDP loans.)  A typical IDP grant might help pay for water and sewer line installation, or road and rail access to a new or expanding industrial site. Other activities eligible for support include the construction or rehabilitation of drainage systems and energy facilities; the acquisition of land, right-of-ways and easements; demolition of buildings and the clearing and preparation of land.  Private companies eligible to benefit from IDP grants fall in the same categories as with the OGP program below.  Individual IDP grants cannot exceed $1.25 million.  A minimum of 20 percent of IDP funds must be loaned or granted for projects on former industrial sites.

 

 

OPPORTUNITY GRANT PROGRAM (OGP)

OGP was established by the Job Enhancement Act of 1996.  There are no regulations for the program, which is administered based on DCED guidelines.  OGP funds may be used for a wide range of purposes including, but not limited to training, site preparation, construction, infrastructure, land acquisition, purchase of machinery and equipment, working capital, environmental assessments, and remediation of hazardous materials. Funds may not be used to finance or retire existing debt or for costs unrelated to expansion or location at a site in the Commonwealth.  Those eligible for OGP grants include companies in agricultural, industrial (e.g., warehouse and terminal facilities, certain office buildings), manufacturing, research and development, and export service industries.  Also eligible for OGP grants are municipalities, industrial development authorities/agencies, municipal or redevelopment authorities, and real estate developers developing business locations for more than one company. There is no maximum grant award.

 

 

PENNSYLVANIA INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (PIDA)

PIDA was created in 1956 and distributes low-interest loans via local non-profit industrial development corporations (IDCs) to eligible businesses.  There are three categories of PIDA loans:

·        Job creation and retention loans to individual companies,

·        Multi-occupancy loans (to finance facilities that will house two or more unrelated PIDA-eligible tenants), and

·        Industrial Park Loans.

Loans for job creation and retention are capped at $1.25 million for a single project.  The cap is $1.75 million if the project meets a special designation such as Brownfield or Keystone Opportunity Zone. 

 

 

HOW TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK TO IMPROVE THE DATA

The technology behind this map is relatively new and its application to mapping the spatial distribution of state business subsidies has, to our knowledge never been done before for Pennsylvania.  In addition, while our database is the first systematic information on the spatial distribution of locations receiving subsidies, it is far from as good as we would like.  For these reasons, we welcome any feedback that can improve our web site or the data on business subsidies that underlie it.

 

For example, do you know the exact address of a subsidy recipient for which we have only a municipality? You can tell whether we have the complete address simply by clicking on the project ID for a given subsidy.  The report that comes up begins with the project address – if it is blank except for municipality, we NEED your help.

 

If you have ideas and/or any information on the funding data displayed, please use this form to provide it.  If you refer to a funding project please be sure to include the project ID.

 

If you prefer to use email, simply send an email to mailto:questions@keystoneresearch.org