Mr. HARVEY. But on the programs that they have undertaken, I came away with the impression that they had done very well interest-rate-wise and insofar as the issuance of the bond issues. Is that right? Mr. GIESEY. I think you will find, because of Pennsylvania law, it is rather restrictive in our local communities as to what they can and cannot do. Mr. WIDNER. For the record, we found that the market value for real estate in the entire State is about $34.3 billion, and the statewide average is about 43.2 percent of the market value or $14.5 billion. The debt service for the State is $121 billion or about 0.84 percent of the total assessed evaluation. In some areas of the State the debt service is considerably greater on a percentage. Fayette County has a debt service equal to 1.43 percent of its total assessed evaluation, while the assessed evaluation equals 46 percent of the market value of all of the real estate. Mr. HARVEY. Did they have any bond issue? I did not bring that with me, but I came away with the impression that the most depressed area in Pennsylvania had a recent bond issue which had never gotten a favorable interest rate, and the construction had gone on. Mr. WIDNER. This may be. Mr. HARVEY. Well, Mr. Chairman, I do not want to dwell on that any longer because of the limitation of time. Mr. CRAMER. Will the gentleman yield? Mr. HARVEY. Yes. Mr. CRAMER. I have one matter I want to clarify. In discussing what the employment impact might be on this $600 million program, I think I did not give a correct figure. Mr. George Meany testified that the $600 million program, throughout the country, would mean an additional 90,000 on-site and off-site jobs for the total program. That means through the 3-year period. And now, if you got 121⁄2 percent for the State of Pennsylvania you would have about 10,000 additional jobs for the total 3-year period. That would be 10,000 additional jobs for both on-site and off-site benefits. Mr. GIESEY. Mr. Cramer, may I make one point? You did not turn the page. Mr. CRAMER. That would be 10,000 out of 500,000 unemployed. That is why I said it was peanuts. Mr. GIESEY. I do not think you turned the page. If you turn the page in Mr. Meany's testimony you will find that he says that the effect of these jobs on the community in buying power, as a multiplier, would mean 135,000 additional jobs. Mr. CRAMER. All right. So you get 10,500. Is that not right, about 10,500? Mr. GIESEY. That is about right. Mr. CRAMER. I will accept that: 10,000 jobs over a 3-year period. Mr. GIESEY. I would not agree with your figures for Pennsylvania because you must recognize that our State is one that has a heavy investment in steel-producing and cement-producing facilities. Public works happen to use these things. I would think that perhaps very selfishly Mr. CRAMER. Well, Mr. Meany estimated that, too. He said the total, both direct and indirect, would be 225,000. So 1212 percent of that would be about a total of 24,000 jobs over a 3-year period. Let's take the maximum, 24,000 over a 3-year period. Mr. GIESEY. May I respectfully ask, what is wrong with that? That is 24,000 more jobs than we have. Mr. CRAMER. Well, I Mr. BLATNIK. As a member of the committee, I will be glad to make a motion to triple your amount. Mr. CRAMER. I would respectfully suggest, if the chairman wanted to do something to get the job done he would send a letter to the President of the United States and ask him to accelerate existing obligations in which there are billions being unspent, and that would do the job much better than the $25 million proposed this year. Mr. BLATNIK. We will come to conclusions in our executive sessions. We are getting all of the evidence and the testimony from all sources possible, pertaining to this particular problem. Governor, again we express our appreciation for your statement. Governor LAWRENCE. Thank you, very much. Mr. BLATNIK. And we appreciate your sincere and earnest concern with this particular problem on a national basis as well as for your own State. Governor LAWRENCE. Thank you. (The statement of Mr. Ralph R. Widner follows:) STATEMENT BY RALPH R. WIDNER, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, PENNSYLVANIA STATE PLANNING BOARD Governor Lawrence has made very clear that Pensylvania is well aware of the role a soundly conceived public works program can play in putting men back to work and also in improving the assets for economic growth in counties suffering from chronic economic distress. The State Planning Board of Pennsylvania, which is the long-range planning arm of the Governor's Office, is interested in both objectives. In our distressed counties, however, it is impossible for the Commonwealth to build the urgently needed public facilities as quickly as they are needed which, in most cases, is right now. The task is too large and our financial resources are too limited to permit such a step. Unfortunately, each year of delay, no matter how necessary, further aggravates the problems of unemployment and further economic distress. For this reason, the Federal assistance that would be made available under these two bills could help substantially in reducing the ranks of the chronically unemployed in Pennsylvania. Federal assistance aside, however, Pensylvania has already moved into an accelerated public works program on its own. As chairman of the board of the general State authority Governor Lawrence has ordered that all State construction projects financed by that agency in counties with chronic unemployment be given the highest priority. He has also directed that the State Highway Department accelerate its program. As a measure of our State commitments in this field the Governor has briefly outlined the dimensions of Pensylvania's last capital budget, which totaled over $241 million. Of the 32 projects which Governor Lawrence mentioned as having design money allocated but for which no construction money will be available until the next capital budget in 1963, are 12 projects in our distressed counties. Construction costs for these projects total $14,148,000. These are tabulated in the table which I am submitting for the record. These projects could benefit greatly from the proposed program outlined in H.R. 10317, since it would enable us to construct them at least 2 years ahead of schedule, put men to work now, and at the same time provide some of the badly needed public facilities necessary to put our distressed counties back on their feet. Of course, these projects reflect only a small portion of Pennsylvania's total public works program. The Commonwealth has already committed much larger sums to the construction of other projects in distressed areas. These are the projects that the State will undertake with construction funds currently allocated. As an indication of the Governor's intent to expedite public works construction in distressed counties, I might point out that from December 1961 to March 15 the General State Authority placed under design 75 new capital projects in distressed areas, totaling $92,717,314 in construction costs. It is expected that by November 1962 the General State Authority will have under construction in distressed areas $100 million worth of public works projects authorized by the 1961 legislature. The General State Authority is only one agency carrying out the capital program of Pennsylvania. Our massive highway program is, of course, executed by our highway department with other funds. The Governor has pointed out that Pennsylvania has speeded up most of its highway improvement and construction program. Some of this has been made possible by the early availability of Federal allocations to the highway program through the Bureau of Public Roads. We have also accelerated those portions of the highway program which are entirely State financed. There are 42,000 miles on the Pennsylvania State Highway System. Of this, about 35,000 miles are older roads. In most cases these roads are inadequate for present traffic needs. In many cases these highways are the keys to sound economic growth in our distressed areas, but they must be improved through the removal of hazardous bridges, the widening of existing pavements and shoulders and other improvements. If the Federal grants were made available under this bill, it would enable Pennsylvania to expand its bridgereplacement program and make much needed improvements on our feeder highway system, which is 100 percent State financed, far ahead of schedule. This money would be used for construction, resurfacing, and widening and hazard removal and would affect about $30 million worth of projects. Another phase of our State public works program embraces the State park and recreation efforts which are being directed at improving the general environment of our communities so that they are more attractive to new economic investment. The Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters has many projects which have not been included in the capital budget and cannot be carried out at the present time because of the heavy strain on Pennsylvania's financial resources. It is quite clear, however, that if Federal grants were available up to 50 percent of the cost of this construction, the department of forests and waters could immediately implement a long-range improvement and construction program which could generate 217,000 man-days of employment and $3 million worth of construction. Indeed, a plan has been prepared for each labor surplus area for park development and improvement should Federal assistance become available, and we are ready to move immediately if this is done. Quite frankly, Mr. Chairman, most of the impact of this program would be felt at the local level. Perhaps the best example of local benefits is the construction of sewage treatment plants and other sewage facilities which this Federal assistance would make possible. There are presently in Pennsylvania 73 sewage treatment plant projects requiring $45,339,212 for construction. An additional $31.5 million is required, however, to build sewage systems in these communities. As Mr. Blatnik knows, the valuable Federal grants available for sewage treatment plant construction do not apply to sewage systems. In most cases they have not the financial capacity to build these systems at the moment. Federal assistance would alleviate the financial strain and the vast majority of these communities would thereby be able to underwrite the remaining costs and get this urgent work done. I am sure that this committee well realizes how important an adequate sewage system is to a community trying to attract new industry. Equally important in the local industrial development picture are training facilities for equipping young talent with the know-how for employment on modern industry. Governor Lawrence has already described the State's plan for area technical schools. The plan for these schools indicates new buildings in: Carbon County, 1 building; Luzerne County, 2 buildings; Lackawanna County, 1 building; York County, 1 building; Armstrong County-Indiana County, 1 building. The Of all these, only York County is not classified as a distressed area. estimated cost of an area technical school, including shop facilities and buildings, is $1.5 million. Obviously, it is impossible to select a uniform program for area technical schools, but it is possible to describe what one of these schools might look like hypothetically. It would include classroom capacity for 500 pupils, offering 10 courses, with 22 pupils per class. The following shops would be required along with the basic shop areas: Automotive mechanics, 2,750 square feet. Machine shop, 2,750 square feet; Foods preparation, 1,650 square feet: Chemical technology, 1,650 square feet. In addition, the building would require such other facilities as a cafeteria. faculty room, administrative suite, lavatories, central storage, and custodial rooms. The building would probably require a total area of some 31,680 square feet. Ironically. the most urgent need for schools of this nature is in those areas of the State which are least able to build them. The market value of real estate for the entire State is $34,322,682,900, while the assessed value on a statewide average is 42.3 percent of the market value. or $14,504,983,351. The debt service for the State is $121,534,510 or 0.84 percent of total assessed evaluation annually. In some areas of the State the debt service is considerably greater, on a percentage basis than that of the State as a whole. Fayette County has a debt service equal to 1.43 percent of its total assessed valuation, while assessed valuation equals 46 percent of the market value of all real estate. These data clearly indicate that the financial ability of these areas has about reached its maximum capacity. The present financial burden exists because of the fundamental need for extensive school construction to meet the minimum physical requirements necessary to provide for the regular educational programs. Consequently. as the Governor said, facilities for training our youth and for retraining our unemployed because of technical industrial changes are simply not available and the financial resources for developing such physical facilities are not available. Available physical facilities for training these people would provide a reservoir of trained people and would serve to attract new industry, as well as induce the expansion of existing industry. I could go on to catalog at some length, Mr. Chairman, the many public works projects which we would be enabled to indicate in 1962 if this assistance were available. The department of health estimates, for instance, that Pennsylvania currently has $10 million worth of water supply systems proposed for construction this year. In many cases, this construction will be deferred because the local community is incapable of raising the necessary funds to carry it out. This program would alleviate this problem substantially. There are in addition many small-scale flood control projects which could be executed, particularly dredging operations. For your information I have attached a list prepared by the department of public welfare which shows you some of the work necessary at many of our welfare institutions which cannot be carried out at the present time with State funds. If Federal assistance were available we could initate this important work at many of these institutions. State capital construction projects, design money allocated, no construction money available Potential of public works projects which can be started in 1962 Allentown State Hospital: Roadways, curbing, sidewalks, parking areas, street lighting, exterior painting, tuck pointing and waterproofing- Clarks Summit State Hospital: Roofing and parapet walls, exterior painting and tuck pointing.. Danville State Hospital: Exterior painting, roadways, tuck pointing, curbing, sidewalks. $300,000 100, 000 Dixmont State Hospital: Roadways, exterior painting__ 260,000 75,000 15,000 Mayview State Hospital: Sanitary sewers, roadways, curbing, walkways, street lighting, exterior painting_-. Harrisburg State Hospital: Water system, exterior painting, tuck Farview State Hospital: Water wells, tuck pointing, exterior painting and waterproofing, gutters, and spouting-. 200, 000 300, 000 450, 000 285, 000 Norristown State Hospital: Exterior painting, tuck pointing and Somerset State Hospital: Roadways, street lighting. Torrance State Hospital: Roadways, sidewalks, tuck pointing, exterior painting- 535, 000 607,000 800, 000 190,000 130, 000 265, 000 Warren State Hospital: Roadways, walks, tuck pointing, exterior painting. 325,000 |