MERCER COUNTY Consolidation expert reports to initiative

Expanding cities create conditions attractive to investors, Rusk said.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- A national expert on consolidation and other metropolitan issues said evidence indicates that consolidation spurs economic growth.
David Rusk of Washington, D.C., author of "Cities Without Suburbs," was hired in 2002 by Shenango Valley Initiative, a church-based, grass-roots movement aimed at improving the Shenango Valley, to look at consolidation and other issues in light of a five-municipality consolidation study then under way.
Public forum
Consolidation of local municipalities Sharon, Farrell, Hermitage, Sharpsville and Wheatland will be one of the issues covered at an SVI public forum at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in St. Joseph Church at 760 E. State St.
Rusk sent SVI an update on his work over the weekend that shows consolidations in other large communities have helped boost economic growth.
He targeted seven large city-county consolidations and compared them with 15 nonconsolidated "peer" communities and found that the regional job supply expanded slightly while real personal income also grew faster in the consolidated areas.
Rusk said the earlier study he did of the Sharon metropolitan area showed similar results are likely.
Expanding cities create conditions attractive to investors, Rusk said, noting that they offer high-quality services and infrastructure, a broad tax base and strong credit ratings.
They are also able to support major public or private economic development initiatives, Rusk said.
Other issues
Other issues on Thursday's agenda include education equity funding, property tax reform and treatment instead of prison for certain nonviolent criminal offenders.
SVI is pushing for better state funding of the public schools and establishment of an Educational Trust Fund.
The group also believes that rising property taxes are strangling the local economy, and slot machine money, years away, is not the answer.
SVI is seeking legislative sponsors for a treatment- instead-of-prison program for nonviolent criminal offenders in Pennsylvania.
Under the proposed bill, people entering the criminal justice system because of a nonviolent crime involving alcohol or other drug addiction would first be sent to community-based, holistic treatment with sanctions and strict supervision, rather than to prison.
If such a person doesn't seriously work their treatment program, they will face their regular judicial, sentencing process.
Those successfully completing the treatment program would be rewarded with no jail time and a clearing of their record.
Because the bill will cover people in the state and county correctional systems, the administrative structure for funding community-based treatment would include the state Health and Family Services Department.