Pennsylvania Budget Woes Hit Ben Franklin in the Chin
Posted on 01 August 2009 by Chris McDemus
For those of you that don’t live in Pennsylvania, for the past five weeks or so the state has been operating without a budget. Not that this is uncommon right now, but it hits harder closer to home. Taking a direct hit from this (to the tune of up to a 60% slash in budget) is Ben Franklin Technology Partners.
BFTP is a non-profit, early stage investor/incubator supported entirely by state funds. BFTP also supports established companies and they’ve been doing it since 1982. BFTP is tasked with creating jobs and to do this they split the state into four quadrants (I happen to be most familiar with the group responsible for BFTP-Northeast PA and they are some of the most solid people around). A 60% cut in their budget will result in significant setbacks. Some people support the notion that BFTP should not be viewed as an expense but as an investment – and a cheap one at that. Technically Philly points out that some reports believe BFTP returns $3.50 for every dollar invested – investments in companies that agree to keep the jobs in PA.
I sincerely hope that Pennsylvania can get a budget passed and that they are able to preserve as much capital as possible for BFTP to deploy. I mean, we are all focused on job creation right now and who better to continue its success in doing so but BFTP. BFTP has issued a call to action and I hope you support it.
