(The Center Square) – An alternative plan to increase Pennsylvania’s mass transit funding using money set aside for system repairs and upgrades failed to impress the Democratic leaders needed to make a deal happen.
On Tuesday, the Republican-majority Senate returned after a six-week break to advance its proposal to boost support for public transit agencies by dipping into a $2.1 billion trust fund that it says can be used to address operational shortfalls like the one faced by SEPTA, the commonwealth’s most extensive transit system.
Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Greensburg, said its on Democrats if they reject the deal “and they will have to answer to their constituents.”
For the Democrat-controlled House, however, and their ally in the governor’s mansion, Josh Shapiro, the idea ignores that most of those funds have been earmarked for improvement projects.
“While the Senate now acknowledges that our transit systems face an imminent funding crisis, robbing Peter to pay Paul, on steroids, is not a serious solution,” said House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, D-Lansdale. “Raiding the trust fund and redirecting capital funding without sufficient sustainable and recurring revenue will not avert this funding crisis. This will not pass the House.”
The development comes just one day after the lower chamber advanced a fifth proposal of its own that would redirect roughly $300 million collected from sales and use taxes to support mass transit agencies. Republicans argue that doing so will shortchange other areas of the budget and leave future funding vulnerable to economic downturns.
In the Senate proposal approved Tuesday, transit agencies must raise fares according to the inflation rate – a move that would echo calls in the House to raise prices by $1 statewide.
If no deal materializes by Friday, however, prices for SEPTA, which services 800,000 riders across Philadelphia and its collar counties, will slash dozens of routes and raise fares by 21.5%
