They love us. They hate us.
In office just six months, state Sen. Rob Teplitz, who lives just over the line in Susquehanna Township, already has gotten a lesson in what it means to represent the maligned little capital city of Harrisburg.
Everyone wants to come here — the senators, the representatives, the tourists, the protesters, the lobbyists. But, once in our house, they can’t wait to tell us that our bathroom needs cleaning, our floors are dirty and our trash cans stink.
Now that marathon legislating over the budget is over, Teplitz invited some in the media over for an impromptu chat.
“Ask me anything,” he said to me, back in his office after dispatching a few of the TV talking heads, who wanted to conduct their interviews with the grandeur of the Capitol rotunda as scenery.
First up: the love.
To most people’s surprise (including Teplitz’s), the just-passed state budget included a record $5 million in “fire protection” money for Harrisburg, double the previous allotment. Over the years, I’ve described this annual transfer of state dollars as a catchall, a payment in lieu of property taxes and the most politically palatable way of injecting money into Harrisburg.
I retain that opinion. This money does actually go to the city’s Fire Bureau, but that just means that funds dedicated for the department can be transferred out and used elsewhere, perhaps even helping the city close its $12 million budget gap this year.
Sure, the mayor and council members and receiver Lynch and Teplitz all insist that this money compensates the city for providing emergency services. “What would it cost for the state to start its own fire department or rebuild this building if it burned down?” Teplitz said, gesturing towards the Capitol’s ornate ceiling.
True enough, but it’s hard to imagine that the actual cost of protecting 40 buildings in the Capitol complex takes up $5 million of the fire bureau’s $8.4 million budget. I’d be less cynical if we could have an honest conversation about the true cost of hosting the state capital, which probably does amount to at least $5 million annually. But I guess, much like fight club, we’re not supposed to talk about that.
And now onto the hate.
Just as the state legislature was giving, it was taking away.
The 2013-14 budget created City Revitalization and Improvement Zones, which will funnel money to a couple of the state’s small cities each year to assist in the redevelopment of particularly distressed areas. However, language in the law prohibits any city under state receivership from participating, a designation that applies only to Harrisburg.
Why?
Teplitz said he couldn’t be sure, but that singling out Harrisburg for special, spiteful treatment was nothing new (see: tax, commuter). It could also be that certain legislators felt they could eliminate one possible source of competition for funding for their own cities.
It would come as no shock if Chester (thank you, Sen. Pileggi) and Lancaster (thank you, Sen. Smucker) are the first two cities to be slotted into the program, Teplitz said.
Well, I guess you have to accept the love where you can get it, and, right now, it seems to be in protecting 40 government buildings from a fire. That makes each state building worth about $125,000 apiece in fire protection money versus about $800 apiece for the rest of Harrisburg’s dense housing stock.
I’ll take it!
