WAMs (short for "walking around money) were funds annually hidden in the Commonwealth
budget which legislative leaders doled out to rank-and-file legislators for pet projects in their districts. Governor Ridge ended WAMs in 1995 but unfortunately he has allowed the Community Revitalization Program to replace WAMs as a means to dispense grants to favored legislators.
The Community Revitalization Program was created last year and is administered by the
Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. The program has a $24.3 million dollar budget and its stated mission is to "improve the stability of communities and enhance local economic conditions". It is being billed as a competitive grant program when, in fact, awards are being made based on politics.
Here's how the program worked last year: In September of 1996, one hundred ninety-six
sequentially numbered CRP grant applications were secretly disaibuted to select legislators. Some legislators were told ths amount of money their district would receive and they were left to decide the recipiet. At the time these applications were distributed, no award guidelines for the grants had been published nor had the program been advertised to grant recipients. Additional applications were distributed only after ths rest of the legislature became
aware of these secret applications. Guidelines for grant awards were not promulgated until October of 1996 (after many grants had already been awarded). The program was not offcially advertised until November 2, 1996. Clearly, this is not how a competitive grant program should work.
The Community Revitalization Program has been funding many of the same type of non-essential
programs formerly funded by WAMs. Some examples of 1996-1997 CRP grants include: $10,000 to the Rhawnhurst AA for a baseball program, $50,000 to Upper Darby Township for playground equipment, $50,000 to the Fox-Chase Soccer Club for a concession stand, $50,000 for events at the Pittsburgh Regatta and $50,000 to Doylestown for a bicycle trail. The Community Revitalization Program is not putting our tax dollars to their best use.
The Community Revitalization Grant Program should make awards on a strict merit-need basis so
that all applicants are competing on a level playing field. At a minimum, this requires the following:
-- filing deadlines should be established so that competing applications can be compared to one another
--guidelines should be promulgated which specifically delineate merit and need criteria for CRP grants
-- the program should be widely advertised so that all potential grant recipients are made aware of it
-- distribution of grant applications through legislators should be discontinued
Until the above changes are made, the Community Revitalization Program should be discontinued.