While pork motivates both parties, Rendell isn't taking chances. "All recipients of RACP funding MUST submit [final paperwork] by Jan. 14, 2011,"
just four days before Corbett is to be sworn in, or risk "termination of any commitment of funding," Rendell's budget office warns in the most recent batch of letters to lucky recipients. The chosen were picked from long lists of candidates given general approval, but no cash, by the General Assembly in past capital-projects bills.
There are strings attached: Each developer or agency needs to show it can raise matching funds from other sources. And each must agree to pay prevailing local wages, typically union scale, instead of hiring migrant laborers or others willing to work cheaply.
Rendell's last giveaways include:
$10 million for Janney Montgomery Scott, the stockbrokerage and investment bank, for expansion of its Center City regional headquarters. (Janney is owned by Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co., of Horsham, which earned about $20 million each month in profits this fall, according to its most recent quarterly financial report.)
The money is a sweetener to try to ensure Janney stays in Center City after its lease at 1801 Market St. runs out next year. But Janney's still playing hard to get: "We are exploring options in the tri-state area," Janney spokeswoman Karen Shakoske told me.
$10 million for Chicago developer John Buck Co.'s plan to turn the former Sidney Hillman Health Clinic site on Chestnut Street into a 33-story private apartment tower.
$9.5 million for Drexel University's business school.
$8 million for the Fox Chase Cancer Center to complete renovation of its Young Pavilion. That follows $12 million in previous RACP grants, Fox Chase spokesman Rob Davis told me.
