How else would you expect them to try to bring a historically industrial/manufacturing & agriculture based economy into the 21st century?
I don't live there, but I think it's great for cities and states to try to increase the diversity of their economic bases and their cultural offerings. Long term it is a potentially VERY wise investment of taxes.
I personally don't think it's great that cities take money from me by force to fund companies I may or may not think are viable. I love what these seed funds are doing, and their is no reason a private one like YC couldn't be created in PA with those restrictions on keeping people there etc. Hell, you could make it an optional tax that citizens volunteer to pay -- just like we do with campaign funding.
I don't live there, but I think it's great for cities and states to try to increase the diversity of their economic bases and their cultural offerings. Long term it is a potentially VERY wise investment of taxes.