Economics will play a big role in Pennsylvania’s ability to sustain a thriving bioscience industry and the family sustaining jobs it creates and supports.

Since 2001, the Tobacco Settlement Act has provided funding necessary for research and development in the health care field and the development of high paying jobs and employment for thousands of people all across the Commonwealth.  Tobacco settlement funds have been used to buy equipment used at many of the state’s major research hospitals and to fund projects that lead to new medicines and cures for diseases.  Unfortunately, the funding that has been making all of this possible is being diverted and swallowed up by the General Fund to cover the ever increasing cost of state government.

I did not support the budget bill that the General Assembly passed this summer.  That legislation transferred $250 million in Tobacco Settlement dollars to the General Fund.  In addition, the budget raided the tobacco fund of an additional $121 million to cover deficiencies in the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS).  While funding for state pension systems will continue to be one of the greatest challenges facing the state Legislature over the next several years, we should not be using tobacco settlement money to fill the gaps.

The loss of this funding means there will be an insufficient amount of money to fully cover the cost of existing programs in 2011-12.  In fact, this year, the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority, an important source of funding for emerging companies, was cut from $20 million to $16.8 million.  This will impact many programs including the Ben Franklin Technology Partners, which provides access to capital that grows technology companies and creates high-paying, sustainable jobs.

Pennsylvania is facing a number of significant financial challenges.  State revenues are flat, we have a looming state pension crisis, and the loss of $850 million in Medicaid funding means more jobs will need to be cut to make up for the revenue shortfall. Now is not the time to be cutting funding for programs that attract jobs that stimulate our economy.

The biosciences are a growth industry that provides tremendous potential for economic development. The industry employs thousands of people nationwide at small, start-up device, diagnostic and biotech companies; pharmaceutical companies; in labs, research and production facilities, just to name a few.  The bioscience industry is important to our economic development and we should be doing everything we can to encourage companies to locate here and employ our citizens. Tobacco settlement funds are supposed to support these efforts.  We should not allow the money to be used to support bloated, wasteful state spending.

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