By Associated Press

HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Corbett on Wednesday demonstrated that he has deep support from labor unions and business advocacy groups behind him as he presses state lawmakers to approve Pennsylvania’s largest-ever taxpayer-paid package of financial incentives for what he portrays as the biggest industrial investment in the state in a generation.

He appeared at a Capitol news conference with several dozen union and business group representatives, as well as lawmakers from both parties, in a show of support for his proposal for a $1.7 billion tax break designed to lure an integrated petrochemical industry to a state wracked by the flight of manufacturing jobs in recent decades.

Corbett faces lawmakers uneasy over the appearance of an industry giveaway and possibly a suspicious public at a time that his administration is pressing for a second straight year of tax cuts for businesses and cuts in aid for education and services for the poor.

“For the general public, that might be hard to understand because ... they think we’re giving money to them,” Corbett said. “No, we’re not. What we’re saying is, ‘You build it. You provide all these jobs for all these people and we’ll take a little bit less money from you so that we have more money for us.”’

Asked whether he believes enough votes will emerge in the Legislature, Corbett, a pro-business Republican who is viewed as an ally of the natural gas industry, singled out a handful of Democratic lawmakers who stood on stage with him.

“With some friends from the other side of the aisle here, I think the support will be there,” he replied.

State Rep. Jaret Gibbons, D-10th, whose district includes the Slippery Rock area, is one of those.

He attended the news conference supporting the plant.

In a news release, Gibbons said, “This is a rare opportunity for our region to be home to a dynamic new industry that will benefit families and taxpayers for years to come.”

Later Wednesday, Corbett said he had reached an agreement with top Republican lawmakers on a tax credit plan, but would not give details until rank-and-file lawmakers are briefed in the coming days.

The plan is in response to the tentative commitment by a subsidiary of Netherlands-based oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC to build a multibillion-dollar petrochemical refinery in Monaca.

The site of the Shell plant also would be located in a tax-free zone the Legislature created for it.

Such a refinery would be the first on the East Coast, and would be fed by the “wet gas” drilled out of Appalachia’s bountiful Marcellus Shale formation, which is thought of as the nation’s largest-known natural gas reservoir.