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Chester County Press

Uncle Irvin: Another Route 1 development group?

02/03/2015 11:50AM ● By Richard Gaw


It seems like there are more groups working on building business presence on the Route 1 corridor than there are businesses to recruit.

A couple of weeks ago, a group called Economic Development Partners made a pitch to the London Grove Township supervisors about the need for clean businesses with good jobs to relocate in the Route 1 corridor in Southern Chester County. Now we read of two other groups, called Vista 2025 and the Route 1 Corridor Initiative, that made a joint presentation to 150 community leaders at the Herr Foods auditorium recently to accomplish the same results as the first group.

Community leaders are now stumbling over one another to be the first to recruit a new company. These groups need to consolidate and spend their time obtaining grants and tax concessions to lure a prominent business here, instead of somewhere else. The southern states have been singularly successful in recruiting giant and medium-sized enterprises with huge grants and tax incentives, along with a right-to-work environment.

Despite attempts, Pennsylvania's politicians have not made Pennsylvania a right-to-work state. The lack of such a law is devastating for Pennsylvania. No large company in its right mind would move into a state that does not have a right-to-work law.

Lawmakers in Pennsylvania kowtow to unions, like the school teachers' union (PSEA), and that is poison to efforts to recruit businesses here. About half the states in the United States are right-to-work states -- but there are none in the Northeast region, which has the highest unemployment.

Where are our Governor and state legislators?

That's an easy question. They are taking campaign money from unions.