On the campaign trail during the summer of 2010, Corbett was criticizing the grant as inappropriate, though acknowledged that while his then-office as attorney general and later post as governor would review the contract, he couldn’t stop the funding without a good reason.
Corbett’s budget secretary Charles Zogby wrote in a Monday letter that the governor has approved a nearly $2 million matching grant for the library at Philadelphia University.
A Corbett spokesman says the administration didn’t have a legal reason to reject a commitment made by Corbett’s predecessor, Ed Rendell.
The approval comes as Corbett moves to tighten a borrowing program that matches financial commitments for development projects.
Rendell had defended the library and other projects financed by the program as critical to revitalizing communities and improving civic cornerstones. Specter was defeated in 2010 in a bid for a sixth U.S. Senate term.
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