Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial // June 28
Pa. Mass Transit Proposal: All Aboard
Republican state senators who represent Philadelphia's suburbs will be doing their constituents a great disservice if they don't agree to a deal on the table to strengthen SEPTA and Pennsylvania's other mass-transit systems.
Supporting the deal may not be an easy vote for these legislators, including Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware) - but it's the right vote.
The Senate GOP has been locked in a battle with Gov. Rendell over transportation funding, which the state has neglected for at least a decade. Six GOP senators from the Philadelphia suburbs, who represent tens of thousands of daily rail and bus commuters, could make the difference in this dispute. Their constituents have waited too long for a system upgrade.
SEPTA's biggest growth in ridership is in commuters traveling between suburbs - for example, from Delaware County to Montgomery County and back.
Rendell originally proposed raising $1.7 billion a year for highways and mass transit by leasing the turnpike and imposing a tax on oil company profits. But there was no appetite in Harrisburg for those proposals.
The new plan, approved by the Democratic-controlled House, involves placing tolls on Interstate 80 and allowing counties to raise local taxes for their regional transit systems. This proposal would raise more than $700 million in its first year; helpful, but still not enough to meet the state's transportation needs. The transit systems in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are facing budget deficits totaling about $200 million, plus a backlog of repairs to their aging rail networks.
An 11-percent fare increase approved by SEPTA's board yesterday anticipates the agency's receiving an extra $100 million from the state. If not, bigger fare hikes and service cuts would hit in September.
The governor wants the Senate to boost this initial transportation pot to about $1 billion, which could be achieved without raising state taxes or fees. Essentially the state would tinker with the Turnpike Commission's debt load, allowing the agency to raise more money through bonding. It would not affect the turnpike's stellar bond rating, a sticking point for some in the GOP.
This reasonable plan would provide, at long last, a perennial and increasing source of revenue for the state's 70 or so mass transit systems. Highways have had dedicated funding with the state's gas tax, while mass transit has gone begging annually. That's why legislators should dedicate at least $500 million of this start-up money to mass transit.
Some GOP senators would like to shortchange mass transit and devote most of the funds to highway construction. But lawmakers have always had the option of raising the gas tax to pay for road and bridge repairs - even in years before gas prices hit $3 per gallon. This new plan is a once-in-generation opportunity to give mass transit its due and refurbish decrepit systems.
Pileggi said the GOP was "looking closely" at the plan, but he's not convinced it can be done "without excessive toll increases."
The transit decision will likely hinge on Pileggi and his suburban GOP colleagues in the Senate: Edwin Erickson (Delaware), Chuck McIlhinney (Bucks), Stewart Greenleaf (Montgomery), Robert Tomlinson (Bucks), and John Rafferty (Montgomery). Without their support, mass transit in this state will keep lurching from crisis to funding crisis, service cutbacks, and ever-steeper fare increases. The suburban commuters they represent would be neglected yet again.
Quoting from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial // June 29 Crazy Days: Don't Fail the Public on Energy and Transportation
It's June 29, height of the crazy season in Harrisburg. Crazy because, in the next few days, lawmakers will try to pass billions of dollars of legislation to fund the state for another year. Crazy because little has been accomplished since the governor released his budget in February and the new fiscal year arrives on Sunday. Crazy, also, if the General Assembly fails to pass two critical items before adjourning this summer: transportation funding and a progressive energy program.
On the transportation front, a reasonable, but not perfect, plan was approved by the House Wednesday. It would rely on tolling Interstate 80, using the tolls to repay bonds issued and raising any number of local sales, use, hotel or car-rental taxes to leverage more state transit dollars for regional systems.
It's better than Gov. Ed Rendell's initial proposal to lease the turnpike and, we would argue, leave the consequences to the next generation of Pennsylvanians. It's better, to legislative Republicans, than taxing the oil companies.
Yet there is opposition in the Republican-led Senate to the House plan, which would raise $700 billion to maintain roads, fix bridges and keep public transit rolling. If the Senate fails to come to terms, the people should take names so they'll know whom to blame for the next bridge that collapses onto Interstate 70. This is not about politics -- it's about safety and commerce and jobs.
Last year the bipartisan state Transportation Funding and Reform Commission said Pennsylvania needed to find an additional $1.7 billion a year to tend its transportation network, yet nothing the Legislature has moved so far will raise that amount. The governor and half the Legislature are behind a good proposal to obtain less than half of that. Pennsylvanians would be well-served by the Senate if it got on board, then helped push the new funding level to $1 billion annually -- still less than the commission wanted, but enough to make a dent in the repair backlog.
