Policy
RenewPA: A Two-Pronged Approach
The RenewPA approach is two-pronged.
- At the state level, RenewPA will work with the Rendell Administration, the General Assembly and key statewide partners and associations to craft a “Common Sense Agenda” for Pennsylvania.
- On the regional level, RenewPA will work with regional leaders and community groups where the citizens and leaders have organized themselves to focus on their core communities, preserve their open space and farms lands and target public investment in a way that smartly grows their region.
RenewPA has provided funds to two such regional efforts:
- MetroYork, to support its efforts to more efficiently provide public services – including public education – in York County.
- Renew Lehigh Valley to promote its work to bring the Lehigh Valley’s 28 different water and sewer systems together to leverage resources.
We will also highlight other efforts in the state, such as the regionalization of municipal police departments and bi-county open space and comprehensive planning in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, and the Greater Erie community’s discussion of a regional asset district.
Our efforts at the state level will serve to strengthen local government, while enabling and encouraging county and municipal leaders to provide services in a way that is efficient and effective, saves tax dollars and makes common sense for their region.
The agenda will include the encouragement of voluntary sharing of municipal services and appropriate delivery of those services. The idea is to create a system that allows municipalities and counties to share tax base and revenue (property, sales and income) to support and create regional initiatives and amenities that spur economic competitiveness and investment, instead of the current system that will inevitably lead to decline and abandonment.
The future of Pennsylvania’s main streets and downtowns has more to do with the way core communities, surrounding municipalities and counties function together than anything else. Let’s stop looking for short-term success in Pennsylvania’s older and core communities. Let’s free our regions to make common-sense decisions that invest in our future.
Stop back often! We will be updating this page often during the 2007 legislative session.
Visit our
About RenewPA page for details about who we are and why we’re needed, and to read a message from the Director of Strategy.
Visit our
Research page for access to a growing library of research and reports from around the state.
Visit our Regional Initiatives page for a continually updated catalog of multi-municipal initiatives from around the state.
Visit our Partners and Resources page, where you can join the growing list of partners, or search for related organizations.
A Campaign to Renew Pennsylvania • 200 North Third Street • 4th Floor • Harrisburg, PA 17101
P: (717) 238-5030 • F: (717) 234-6075 © www.renewpa.org
