Pa. state legislator criticizes Mellon for not moving jobs

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A state senator criticized the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. for stopping a $70 million data center expansion in western Pennsylvania.

The New York financial services firm said it instead planned to keep open a New Jersey processing center.

"This decision has broken the trust of local elected and economic development leaders and only serves to enhance the skepticism with which many working-class communities view corporate America," Sen. Don White, R-Indiana, wrote in a letter released Thursday.

The letter, to bank CEO Robert Kelly, noted that White and local officials had assembled a tax-abatement package to encourage the bank's original decision to expand its South Buffalo Township facility. As part of the expansion, the bank had promised last June to bring 200 new jobs to the Armstrong County facility.

Company spokesman Jeep Bryant said the company still plans to add 200 technology-related jobs, the majority of them in the bank's downtown Pittsburgh offices.

Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, http://www.post-gazette.com

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