Can we get there from here? Transportation panel eyeing tough choices
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Raise transit fares. Increase gas and diesel taxes. Outsource bus cleaning and maintenance. Impose tolls on interstate highways.
What will it be?
All of the above show up on a menu of proposals being drafted by a nine-member special commission taking a comprehensive look at state transportation problems.
The Transportation Funding and Reform Commission's final report and recommendations are due no later than Nov. 15, a date thought to be rooted in politics because it comes eight days after the general election.
But the tightly guarded funding and reform proposals -- some certain to be drastic, expensive and controversial -- will become public knowledge well in advance of the gubernatorial vote.
The commission will issue an interim report before the end of the month, and then hold a series of meetings around the state to gauge public reaction, the Post-Gazette has learned. One meeting will be held in Pittsburgh, tentatively on Sept. 11.
State Rep. Rick Geist, R-Altoona, chairman of the House Transportation Committee and a member of the Transportation Reform and Funding Commission, said a gas tax hike of 7.7 cents would be needed "just to address the backlog of obsolete and structurally deficient bridges and sustain the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's basic highway maintenance program."
The commission's interim report is said to suggest that as much as a 25-cents-a-gallon gas tax hike would be ideal, albeit politically unrealistic, considering that gasoline is selling for around $3 a gallon and the state's 31.2-cent gas tax is already one of the nation's highest.
Contentious items involving public transit include proposals that the Port Authority and Philadelphia's transit agency engage in competitive bidding for operating activities that include transit vehicle cleaning, repairs and general maintenance now done by unionized employees.
In addition, the commission is looking at requiring 50 percent of operating costs to come out of the farebox, a rule of thumb when legislation was framed in the early 1960s to create the public transit agencies and provide taxpayer subsidies.
At the Port Authority, where the base cash fare is $1.75, passenger revenue is projected to be $88 million for this fiscal year, or about 25 percent of operating costs in a $347.5 million budget.
Meanwhile, PennDOT is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to rehabilitate and maintain Interstate 80 across the state, a road that serves much out-of-state traffic and especially truckers going to and from Northeast markets.
For years, I-80 has been a leading candidate for tolling, but the Legislature has never brought the issue to a vote.
Gov. Ed Rendell formed the Transportation Fund and Reform Commission in February in the aftermath of financial crises at the Port Authority and Philadelphia-based Southwestern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. Its purview was expanded to other aspects including highways, bridges and capital improvement programs.
"It's a genuine outreach to get people to think and offer ideas," said the commission chairman, state Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler. "We have a bipartisan group that understands the importance of mobility in Pennsylvania, whether it be transit or the highway-bridge side. Ultimately we will offer a set of recommendations for more permanent solutions to difficult situations."
Although Mr. Rendell has flexed $412 million in traditional federal highway funds to bail out the Port Authority and SEPTA for the past 18 months and avoid fare increases and service cuts, the special money runs out Dec. 31, and the two transit agencies face a combined deficit of $82 million for the last six months of the current fiscal year.
PennDOT has its own challenges, mainly because high energy and materials costs are driving up construction costs at double-digit inflation rates. Automatic escalator clauses in an Oil Company Franchise Tax that have added a 5 cents a gallon in the past two years have been insufficient to offset those cost increases, forcing PennDOT to delay or downsize projects.
"The state of transportation is ugly," said Mr. Geist. "We have a crisis. The question is, when are people going to admit we have a crisis?"
State Sen. Barry Stout, D-Bentleyville, minority chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee and a commission member, questioned how much benefit will come of the exercise.
"We need 26 people in the Senate to stand up and vote 'yes' and 102 people in the House to stand up and vote 'yes' for the commission's final report to make a difference," he said. "I doubt there's enough fire in the belly for enough people to stand up and do that. I'm very frustrated."
State Rep. Keith McCall, D-Carbon, minority chairman of the House Transportation Committee and a commission member, said while a menu will be laid out, "it will still be the General Assembly's responsibility to pick and choose and send legislation to the governor to sign."
"Nothing is etched in stone," Mr. McCall said. "We're identifying needs and putting everything on the table -- financial, operating, policy, everything. We fully understand the problems but we want the public to weigh in."
Other local members of the Transportation Funding and Reform Commission are Jim Roddey, former Port Authority board chairman and Allegheny County chief executive, and Alex Sciulli, former director of engineering and construction for the city of Pittsburgh who's now a senior vice president of Mellon Financial Corp.
"Mostly, we've defined the magnitude of the problem and listed possible solutions," Mr. Roddey said. "They run the gamut from privatization and tolling any new highways to raising the sales tax to help transit. We're laying out all the options."
"Everybody wants state-of-the-art transportation but nobody wants to pay," said Mr. Stout. As for lawmakers' votes, "I always say, 'Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.' But they all show up at ribbon-cuttings."
First Published August 5, 2006 12:00 am
