“We have a budget.”

Though it was the biggest takeaway from Gov. Tom Wolf’s visit to Bethlehem today, it was only because of this the real reason for his visit was made possible. Standing in the National Museum of Industrial History on Third Street, Wolf announced a $12 million initiative to help coordinate and streamline activities and opportunities for bettering industry statewide.

He said the funds will help community colleges and research institutions work with manufacturers to develop more and better programs for training in new technologies and innovating old ideas in new directions. “People used to say, ‘We need jobs.’ That’s not the case anymore. Now they’re saying ‘We need skills.’”

The Manufacturing Pa. Initiative will create a Manufacturing Training-to-Career Grant Program, boost funding to the Industrial Resource Center Network, which helps manufacturers handle changing markets and technology, and a Pennsylvania Manufacturing Innovation Program to “take good ideas from hard drives and filing cabinets and put them to use.”

Of both the Lehigh Valley and Pennsylvania in general, Wolf said, “This is a great place to do business, and a great place to build a business. There is infinite appetite for manufactured goods.”