Who is opposing mass transit funding?

As PA’s latest budget impasse drags on, voters struggle to understand points of contention. 

Governor Shapiro’s proposed budget, delivered in early February, yielded much discussion about deficits and spending. Among other areas of concern, mass transit funding has captured attention from all corners of PA.

House Bill 1364, introduced by Rep. Ed Neilson, chair of the House Transportation Committee, “would invest nearly $300 million into mass transit funding for all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.”According to a PA House Democratic press  release: 

This is the most significant transit funding increase in over a decade, and no one will see an increase in their taxes. With an additional $500 million in funding to repair roads and bridges, this comprehensive bill will bolster Pennsylvania’s transportation infrastructure in a way that benefits us all.

Public transit, both directly and indirectly, is a major contributor to our state’s economy; every dollar invested in transit, returns $5 to our economy. 

The bill passed in the House Transportation Committee on a party-line vote on June 16, then in the House with most Ds and 7 Rs voting YES the next day. No action has followed in the Senate. In the weeks since, an unusually large cross-section of interest groups has urged support.Former Republican and Democratic Governors Mark Schweiker and Ed Rendell coauthored an op-ed titled Transportation in Pennsylvania is a bipartisan issue, noting “transportation is the lifeblood that powers our economy.”An op-ed from Heather Heeter, chair of the Transportation Committee of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, begged the PA Senate to recognize the importance of mass transit to all parts of PA:

More than 400 million passenger trips are taken annually on transit systems throughout the commonwealth including urban, suburban and rural areas. By connecting workers to jobs, students to classes, and seniors to medical services, public transit makes economic growth and improvements to quality of life possible.”

The latest economic analysis provided by Econsult Solutions shows “SEPTA’s cost to operate is below the national industry average of peer transit agencies”

✓ 18% below average for bus operations;

✓ 47% below average for heavy rail operations;

✓ 33% below average commuter rail operations.

That report,  the latest in a series across multiple years, warns of a looming SEPTA  funding crisis, with dire consequences for the Philadelphia region and the state:

SEPTA Will Lose its Ability to Serve as Pennsylvania’s Economic Engine

As fare increases and service reductions push our region toward gridlock, Southeastern Pennsylvania will enter its own death spiral, pulling the rest of the state down with it.

SEPTA and the region it serves are economic drivers for PA, but mass transit funding  also plays an essential role in every PA county.  While PA papers and organizational newsletters are full of data and stories explaining the need for adequate mass transit funding and the dangers of delay, arguments against such funding are few and hard to find.

The only apparent opposition is that PA can’t afford it. Yet as economic analysis makes clear, failure to invest will harm PA’s economy, and every dollar invested will yield large returns for the economy, for communities, and in PA tax revenues. 

Further Reading:

• SEPTA’s Crisis is Not Just a “City of Philadelphia” Problem

• What’s at stake over proposed increase in mass transit funding in Pa.? 

• The Economic Consequences of SEPTA's Funding Crisis

• Losing their routes: PA’s transit funding crisis looms over rural systems