Pennsylvania has sharply increased the public money it uses to attract and retain businesses under Gov. Josh Shapiro, helping land high-profile projects such as Chobani’s planned $1.2 billion dairy plant in Allentown. Whether those deals produce lasting, broad-based benefits for residents remains an open question. Since Shapiro took office in 2023, the state’s BusinessPA team has spent an average of $121.8 million a year on business incentives, according to figures provided by the administration. That is more than twice the annual average of $51.6 million under former Gov. Tom Wolf from 2018 through 2022. Through late September, the administration had pledged nearly $457 million in grants, loans and tax credits to about 90 companies that agreed to create or retain jobs in Pennsylvania. The 10 largest deals accounted for 65% of that total. The figures do not include tax breaks available to some businesses in Keystone Opportunity Zones. Chobani founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya credited state support with helping clear obstacles to the company’s first Pennsylvania dairy plant. The administration expedited permitting and offered $50 million in grants and loans for site improvements, including solutions to wastewater and energy challenges. Other prominent commitments include Eli Lilly’s planned $3.5 billion Lehigh Valley facility and Burlington Stores’ $370 million headquarters relocation to Philadelphia. The administration says businesses receiving help through BusinessPA and other state programs have announced $43 billion in planned investments and 29,000 jobs since 2023. Shapiro’s economic development plan, introduced in 2024, targets agriculture, energy, life sciences, manufacturing, and robotics and technology. The administration says incentives are only one part of its approach, alongside faster project approvals, improvements to industrial sites and reductions in the state corporate tax rate. A centerpiece of the effort, PA SITES, is backed by authorization for the state to borrow $400 million to prepare sites for development. Business leaders say the funding can help Pennsylvania compete for projects that might otherwise go elsewhere. DrinkPAK, which plans to invest $195 million in a manufacturing facility at Philadelphia’s Bellwether District and says it will create 174 jobs, said state incentives were essential to choosing the site. The district occupies a former refinery in Southwest Philadelphia. But the benefits can be harder to establish when a deal shifts jobs from one place to another. Burlington says it will move 1,500 existing jobs from South Jersey to University City and add 500 positions. The Shapiro administration counts all 2,000 as new jobs because they will be in Pennsylvania. Jeff Hornstein of the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia questioned whether relocating jobs within the same region amounts to net growth. Critics also argue that subsidies can steer public resources toward selected companies, while borrowing to finance grants can add interest costs for taxpayers. Elizabeth Stelle of the Commonwealth Foundation, a right-leaning policy group, called the approach “corporate welfare.” The campaign of Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, Shapiro’s opponent in the November governor’s race, has similarly criticized the incentives and says businesses should be welcomed without public handouts. Evaluating the deals is complicated by a gap in public oversight. A state board responsible for reviewing tax-credit programs and other spending has not met since 2023, despite a 2017 law requiring reviews. The Shapiro administration says it is waiting for the board to reach agreement on how to proceed and is conducting its own reviews through a program called REMAP. The administration says it negotiates provisions allowing it to recover some or all of an incentive if a company fails to meet its commitments. Since early 2023, it says, the state has reclaimed more than $3.8 million from 64 businesses that did not deliver promised jobs or otherwise breached their agreements. Researchers and policy advocates say the ultimate test is not the size of a company’s investment announcement, but whether public support changed its plans, created durable jobs with good wages, and generated benefits that outweigh the costs. That assessment will matter beyond the campaign: Shapiro’s business-friendly record is also being weighed amid speculation about a possible 2028 presidential bid, while his earlier backing for data center projects has faced public pushback.