Bringing our money home

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Like the fellas having their morning coffee at the local diner, the editorial staff here at The L-V likes to sound off frequently about how the tax dollars the people of this area pay routinely goes to help those in the cities, and not residents of our rural area.
And while we still see that city favoritism on both the state and federal levels, we had to admit several weeks ago that our area finally got its share - and maybe more.
The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST) announced last month that of the $134 million it was awarding for water and sewer projects across the state, two projects in our area were given close to $10 million total for major infrastructure work. The Redbank Valley Municipal Authority was granted $6.2 million and East Brady Borough was granted $3.5 million, both for sewer system upgrades.
$10 million out of $134 million isn't bad at all - and it's even better for our area, because of the $134 million total, only $59 million was being offered as grants; the rest was awarded in low interest loans.
So, in this round of PENNVEST funding, our area received nearly 17 percent of the available grant funding, which comes from both state and federal sources.
As many will point out, that's not "free" money. But it is money that our area paid in state and federal taxes that was returned to us. It will help these two communities improve their public systems, while helping to keep the cost down for their customers and residents. And overall, improvements in the Redbank Valley and East Brady areas helps the entire region as we struggle to keep residents and businesses, and to attract new people and industry to the area.
Congratulations to both the RVMA and East Brady for their efforts in returning our tax dollars to us.