Pushing high-tech in Pa.

News Article

By Jim Callahan

Tom Corbett, a lawyer, admitted to software programmers at a township company that he didn't really understand the ins and outs of what they were doing with computers to create three-dimensional illustrations of bridges, roads and tunnels.

He did know he wanted to encourage more of it in Pennsylvania, however.

Corbett, the Republican candidate for governor and current attorney general, took his campaign for office through Bentley Systems on Tuesday, checking out the modeling software used by architects, engineers and others in their design work.

The stop showcased high-tech industries in Chester County specifically and southeastern Pennsylvania in general that the candidate hopes to encourage in the state if elected this fall.

Manufacturing, while important, is not going to lead to future great job growth in the state, he told a group of company programmers at a meeting later. "One machine is doing the job of four or five people," he said.

The future prosperity of the state is in jobs in high-tech industries at companies like Bentley, he said.

"Other states are more competitive," he said. The problem is the cost of

government and taxes. He said the state needed to be more competitive with places like Texas, Tennessee and South Carolina.

He noted that Bentley grew out of the Philadelphia Enterprise Center 25 years ago before establishing itself in Chester County. He said Pennsylvania needs to encourage more entrepreneurship to grow new companies like Bentley, which has about 500 employees in its office park in Chester County and about 3,000 worldwide. The company has $500 million in revenues annually.

To do this, Pennsylvania, which has one of the oldest state populations in the United States, must do more to keep its young people.

"We are seeing too many of our young people leaving the state in search of jobs elsewhere," said Corbett.

Corbett said as governor he will be determined to help make high-tech jobs and employers like Bentley grow. As part of his campaign Corbett has outlined a series of proposals to make the state more receptive to new business growth, rather than see young people take their ideas elsewhere.

For initiatives to be successful, Corbett said the next governor needs to be willing to take unpopular stands to control state spending.

The Republican candidate said he was willing to risk the consequences of being unpopular.

During his tour of Bentley, the candidate had the chance to see programmers show off their computers used to design three-dimensional visualizations of projects, at one point even donning special glasses to see how images jumped off computer screens.

In one demonstration an employee used a 42-inch touch screen to show the interior layout of the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia as it exists to give a better idea of how event planners can use their technology to do floor layouts.

Bentley is privately owned by four brothers. The company started off in computer-aided design. It has moved to the top ranks of firms doing design on computers to visualize projects for customers and the public, and to aid construction firms in execution of projects.

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