Gov. Ridge set the tone for economic expansion by slashing corporate tax rates and making more money available for incentives packages. On May 24, 2000, he signed into law the largest tax cut in Pennsylvania history -- nearly $775 million for tax cuts for state residents and employers.
      Since 1995, Ridge has reduced taxes by more than $6.4 billion. During the six years since, the state added 350,000 jobs.
      The governor this year approved $100 million in funding for industrial development programs, $25 million for small business financing and an additional $10 million for community and economic development programs. Employers will benefit from $12 million set aside to provide customized job training for more than 29,000 workers in growing manufacturing and technology firms. Qualified employers receive guaranteed free employee training in basic skills and technology.
      In the area of high-tech, the newly created Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority will create a $56.3 million technology powerhouse, making it the largest state technology development program in the nation. The program establishes a line item for the Industrial Resource Centers and expands support to $11.2 million for manufacturing technology.
      Partnering with state and local governments on economic development are Pennsylvania's utility companies. GPU Energy, headquartered in Reading, is the largest electric utility in Pennsylvania and New Jersey combined, serving more than 2 million customers and 38,000 commercial and industrial clients from Lake Erie to the New Jersey shore.
      GPU Energy's Economic Develop-ment Team regularly helps corporate real estate executives locate sites, shop for the best electrical supplier, train workers, work with Keystone Opportunity Zones (KOZ sites levy no state or local taxes until 2011) and Foreign Trade Zones, obtain tax credits and abatements, and secure needed zoning and permits.
      GPU recently succeeded in locating Ze Tek, a European manufacturer specializing in the alternative energy industry (zero-emission fuel cells) to a 40,000-sq.-ft. (3,700-sq.-m.) KOZ site. The site is a brownfield under revitalization.
      GPU worked with several parties during the project including the Governor's Action Team, Lebanon Valley Economic Development Corp. and Berks County Community Foundation. Ze Tek, which will employ 350 people, considered sites in two other states before selecting Lebanon. Chad Christ of GPU said that a state incentives package and an equity investment by the GPU Sustainable Energy Fund helped sway the decision in Lebanon's favor.
      Donna S. Buchheit, manager of economic development for Allentown-based PPL Utilities, says that such cooperation among utility companies and government officials is the norm in her state. "In Pennsylvania, we believe that other utilities are partners, not competitors," she says. "In our own service area, Central and Eastern Pennsylvania, most of the growth is happening in the smaller cities, in places like Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Lancaster, Harrisburg and Allentown."
      Buchheit is especially optimistic about one program her company helped launch two years ago -- the Select Sites program. The initiative uses a process developed by Fluor Global Services to identify sites that are ready for industrial or high-tech development.
      "It's a process of learning what businesses require for a site to be ready," says Buchheit. "Each type of site in Pennsylvania was assessed according to market criteria. There were 102 sites certified as ready for development in the first round of Select Site designations. We are now working on round two."