Grant awards are controlled by Ridge's administration and are supposed to be made based on project merits rather than politics. It's hard to determine exactly what makes one application a winner and another a loser. Although officials aren't shy about announcing the winners in the grant game, they contend rejected grant applications are not public documents. Friday's announcements weren't the first. In at least several cases lawmakers notified their constituents personally in advance of the state announcement.
Some lawmakers make hay on the grants long after they have been announced in Harrisburg.
Two weeks ago, as state officials were preparing Friday's award list, state Sen. J. Barry Stout, a Democrat from Bentleyville, Washington County, and state Rep. Timothy Solobay, a Democrat from Canonsburg, spent the afternoon in the Bentleyville Volunteer Fire Department's social hall, shaking hands, posing for pictures and handing out ceremonial checks representing local awards from 1998-99. Solobay, a freshman lawmaker, and Stout, a veteran of three decades in the state Capitol, boasted of their involvement in the process. Sometimes people look at this as a political thing. Although the grant awards had been announced in Harrisburg five months ago, no one was complaining. In this section of Pennsylvania, the grants may be small.