by Steve Reinbrecht
I want to know why the tech-entrepreneurial tidal wave that is obviously washing through many other small cities is passing Berks and Reading by.
In 2015, the state awarded almost $18 million to 239 companies across the state as part of the state's Keystone Innovation Zone.
They included companies in Johnstown, Erie, Williamsport, Harrisburg, Selingsgrove, Lancaster, Bloomsburg, Carlisle, with lots in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre and Erie and Doylestown.
How much did Berks get?
Zero.
Two Berks companies got KIZ credits in 2014.
The Reading Eagle had a story on its website about companies in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties getting tax credits.
But even though the Eagle is the major newsgathering organization in Berks and Beyond, it doesn't mention Berks' failure to incubate tech companies.
Why, other than the Eagle knows how to LOOK like a newspaper but the newsroom leaders don't know how to produce a REAL newspaper? Or is it the newsroom leaders' compulsion to assure everybody that everything is fine in Berks, so buy a new car?
The KIZ is an incentive program that provides tax credits to for-profit companies less than eight years old operating within specific targeted industries within the boundaries of a Keystone Innovation Zone, the state says.
“The KIZ tax credit program significantly contributes to the ability of young KIZ companies to transition through the stages of growth.”
