Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — An Economic Profile

GOVERNMENT

HARRISBURG IS NOT JUST THE STATE CAPITAL OF PENNSYLVANIA BUT ALSO THE SEAT OF DAUPHIN COUNTY. THE CITY GOVERNMENT IS OPERATED BY AN ADMINISTRATION HEADED BY THE PRESENT SIX-TERM MAYOR, STEPHEN R. REED.

City Government

Incorporated as a borough in 1791 and later as a city in 1860, Harrisburg has been served since 1970 by the “strong mayor” form of municipal government, with separate executive and legislative branches. The mayor serves a four-year term with no term limits. As the full-time chief executive, the mayor oversees the operation of 34 agencies, run by department and office heads, some of whom comprise the mayor’s cabinet, including the Departments of Public Safety (police and fire bureaus), Public Works, Business Administration, Parks and Recreation, Incineration and Steam Generation, Building & Housing Development and Solicitor. There are seven city council members, all elected at large, who serve part-time for four-year terms. There are two other elected city posts, Treasurer and Controller, who separately head their own fiscally related offices.

Additional city-related agencies include:

The Harrisburg Authority. A multi-functional financing vehicle of municipal improvements that also owns the water system, the advanced wastewater treatment facility and conveyance system, and the city’s waste-to-energy incineration, steam and electrical generation plants.

Harrisburg Industrial Development Authority. An additional financing vehicle spawned by the Mayor in 2001 to engage in tax-exempt and taxable bond and mortgage financing on behalf of manufacturers, non-profit organizations and businesses establishing headquarter operations in the city.

Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority. The city’s primary agent for the acquisition, assembly and resale of real estate for development undertaken usually by the private sector; plans and implements various housing and other renewal projects.

Mayor’s Office of Economic Development. Established in 1982 by the Mayor as the city’s first-ever business and industrial office, provides comprehensive services to attract, enhance and retain business and economic investment (see Economic Development chapter).

Harrisburg Parking Authority. Operates all of the public parking garages downtown with a total of 2,000,000 sq. ft. in parking capacity, and several parking lots, and maintains the parking meters.

Harrisburg Parks Partnership. Initiated by the Mayor in the late 1980’s, this non-profit entity, headquartered in the Reservoir Park Mansion, is a coalition of corporate, civic and neighborhood leaders who raise funds and oversee the undertaking of various parks improvements and targeted recreational programs.

Downtown Improvement District Authority. Initiated by the Mayor in 1999, this public body is headed by representatives of small and large property owners in a portion of the Center City area. Funded by a surcharge paid by real estate owners, the Authority conducts daily clean-up and maintenance as well as public informational and beautification functions.

Harrisburg Enterprise Development Corporation and Capital City Economic Development Corporation. Both entities were initiated by the Mayor to provide a vehicle for economic development projects, with non-profit status for both.

Harrisburg Civic Baseball Club, Inc. Formed by the Mayor in the mid-1990’s to be the owner of the AA minor league professional baseball franchise based at City Island, of which the City is the sole stockholder.

Harrisburg Leasing Authority. Formed by the Mayor in the 1980’s, serves as a vehicle for lower cost, tax-exempt financing for capital improvements and purchases for city government.

City-owned and -operated facilities exist at multiple locations within and outside the city, including the region’s largest wastewater treatment plant, the regional waste-to-energy facility, DeHart Dam (Harrisburg’s primary water reservoir 25 miles northeast of the city), Public Works Center, City Island, Reservoir Park and numerous other parks and recreational buildings and sites, two pools, four fire stations, sewage pumping stations, horse stables and corral, Parks Maintenance Center, and more.

The city’s 2001 budget was 103.7 million, of which less than 20% was raised from taxes. The city’s priorities of economic development, creation of non-tax revenue sources and an on-going effort to improve the operations of government remain, and have been since 1982, the principal goals of the Reed administration.

Harrisburg is a full-service city, with such activities as business, industrial and residential development; legal, insurance and risk management; human relations and affirmative action; financial management, purchasing, personnel, billings and collections; printing and data processing; planning, codes enforcement, and zoning; parks system, recreational programs, and special events; firefighting, emergency management and fire prevention; law enforcement, crime prevention, and parking enforcement; police communications center; traffic and infrastructure engineering; building maintenance, street sweeping, street, sewer, and inlet maintenance, public works, trash collection, recycling, vehicle maintenance, water, waste water conveyance and treatment; trash burning, electrical energy generation, steam generation and more.

Of particular note is the city’s Geographic Information System (GIS) and Computer-Aided Dispatching System (CAD) which, while separate programs, are intertwined technologically. GIS and CAD, connected to multiple city agencies, provide and unify a significant amount of data about properties, service calls, infrastructure, zoning, and crime information, as well as report and record information on a master map that delineates all properties and rights-of-way in the city. Harrisburg has been repeatedly recognized nationally for being a pioneer in the use of technology, now employed in all city agencies and functions.

Main City offices are housed in the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King City Government Center, the only headquarters of a government anywhere in the world named for the civil rights leader, located at 10 N. Second Street on Market Square, and in the adjacent and interconnected McCormick Public Services Center at 123 Walnut Street. Completed in 1982 as a testimony to the city’s commitment to the revitalization of the central business district, the King City Government Center features a central sky-lit atrium and is the site of numerous festivities and ceremonies, as well as art, cultural and historical exhibitions. Of particular interest is the permanent mounted display of city awards and publications on the upper-story galleries. The King City Government Center is lively and colorful, a place where newcomers feel at ease and where public and private partnerships are solidified.

In addition, the City is the principal organizer of the SouthCentral Assembly for Effective Governance, an 8 county consortium of government, business, education and community leaders charged with seeking creative ways to foster intergovernmental cooperation, to identify economies of scale in shared municipal services, to further sound, regional planning and growth management on a multi-metropolitan basis in the greater region, and to promote tourism and an enhanced quality of life for all.

County Government

Dauphin County government is responsible for the tax assessment of all county real estate, maintenance of all real estate transactions through the Recorder of Deeds office, recording of wills, issuance of marriage licenses, administration of the county court and judiciary system, funding of the county’s parks and recreation program, economic development initiatives, social service agencies, voting registration and elections procedures, and the county home and prison operations. County government also includes the offices of the District Attorney, Prothonotary, Coroner and Sheriff as well as the 12th Judicial District Court of Common Pleas. Most county functions are governed by the three-member Board of Commissioners and headquartered in the marble-clad Dauphin County Courthouse at Front and Market Streets downtown.

County government is comprised of a building complex that includes, in addition to the Court House, the Veteran’s Office Building, the Market Square Office Annex and Human Services Building, located across Market Street from and just east and south of the Courthouse respectively. The complex has undergone a multi-million dollar space realignment project that included the acquisition of the adjacent 90,000 sq. ft. office building so as to better allocate the county’s administrative and judicial functions. Dauphin County also maintains an emergency management agency, a sophisticated GIS system designed to be compatible with neighboring counties and an extensive law library.

State Government

State government is headquartered in the 65-acre Capitol Complex located adjacent to the central business district. The Complex contains parks, plazas, fountains, statuary, the state capitol building and related older complex structures, as well as the high-rise buildings of later years, built to meet the demands of a more sophisticated governmental service organization. The main capitol building, completed in 1906 and magnificently improved inside and out under recently completed restoration projects, houses the offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor as well as those of the Pennsylvania General Assembly which includes separate and elaborate chambers for both the State Senate and House of Representatives. The sweeping neo-classical styled Capitol East Wing, completed in 1986, is a 300,000-square-foot legislative office center. In addition to the main capitol, the formal Capitol Complex includes the North and South Office Buildings and the Finance and Forum buildings. Newer buildings in the Capitol Complex to the north of North Street include the State Museum of Pennsylvania, the State Archives Tower, Labor and Industry Building, Health and Welfare Building, and the Northwest Office Building, (headquarters of the PA Liquor Control Board). Additional state departments are headquartered in center city office complexes (see Center City Development). The newest addition to the Capitol Complex is the Keystone Building. This 850,000 sq. ft., 10 story, classically designed edifice, which replaced the former Transportation and Safety Building which was imploded in August of 1998, houses the PA Historical and Museum Commission, the PA Public Utility Commission, and the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). DCED is the official state agency which administers a wide array of grant and loan programs to stimulate projects and activities in the Commonwealth and, with the Governor’s Action team, headquartered at 100 Pine Street in Center City, has assembled an effective group of professionals committed to attract and retain business in the state through working closely with local economic development professionals.