State is liable to wreck transit at any cost
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In an era of rugged individualism and mindless austerity, there's something almost quaint about the concept of public transportation. When you think about it, public transit has the same old-world cachet as other once-indispensable facts of modern life.
For many folks, public transit will always be associated with folding newspapers into quarter sections while gripping an overhead strap on a crowded bus or swaying subway car. Commuters endure what amounts to a chaotic ballet while angling for one of the vinyl, plastic or metal spring-filled seats as they open up.
It is one of the most democratizing moments of the day when a lawyer from Shadyside sits next to a fry cook from East Liberty. Even early in the morning, people are aware that rituals of politeness must be adhered to. Commuters don't shove past their fellow strap-hangers without begging a pardon, even if it is insincere.
There are rituals to be attended to in those rumbling, metal-encased living rooms full of strangers. Eye contact may be reluctant, but there's no doubt that we see each other. When the bus stops for a blind person and a seeing-eye dog, a group of old people, or a young mother struggling with a stroller and a toddler, most able-bodied riders vacate designated seats without being asked.
Compounded daily, moments like these remind us of public transit's ability to accommodate commuters across various divides. Buses, trolleys and subway cars are among society's best laboratories of democratic and social practice. Public transit even has the added virtue of conserving energy and money. That's why it's so easy to take the entire social contract for granted when riding a bus to work in the morning.
Still, there are those who would read the previous paragraphs and roll their eyes. As far as they're concerned, you can round up the newspapers, the paperback books, the random tribes of mass transit commuters, the social safety net and the environment and put them all on the same ice floe. One good, stiff kick should send that entire collection of old-world solidity out to sea, where it couldn't do any more harm to honest taxpayers and other enlightened, selfish people.
Next week, Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to unveil what will amount to an ambitious "non-plan" for dealing with the state's transportation budget shortfall. Transit systems from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia are in big trouble, but Mr. Corbett remains curiously detached from what will happen to the state's overall economy if service cuts on the scale threatened by the transit agencies go forward.
Along with the prospect of crumbling mass transit systems in the big cities, where most of the state's revenues are generated, there is the equally nihilistic prospect of inadequate funding of the construction and repair of roads and bridges that we all use every day. How is Pennsylvania supposed to attract investment if public transit has collapsed and our deteriorating roads are clogged with commuters forced to drive to work?
Ever since then-gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett got religion from tea party activists who opposed him in the 2010 Republican primary, he has been more Catholic than the pope when it comes to taxes.
Mr. Corbett's short-sighted opposition to taxing Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction at any rate makes Pennsylvania the laughing stock among energy-producing states that have no such compunctions, but at least it reflects his administration's ties to an industry that supported him in the primaries and the general election. His lame mantra is that the energy sector is too new and too fragile to pay its share despite its willingness to do so. The governor, as usual, knows best.
What is perverse, unacceptable and infuriating is Mr. Corbett's unwillingness to raise motor vehicle registration and licensing fees that have remained static since 1997, when Bill Clinton was president. This is in keeping with an extremist theory that taxation is theft if it benefits the entire commonwealth.
The governor is determined to face the taxpayers in 2014 true to his pledge to never raise taxes. If he has no other accomplishments to brag about, Mr. Corbett will at least be able to boast to the Grover Norquist wannabes that haunt his dreams that he watched our roads, bridges and transit systems go down the toilet without flinching. That's leadership, folks.
First Published January 31, 2012 12:00 am
