If state government fails to deliver more money to public transit, it may create "a situation where you have to have a car to live in Pittsburgh," said Pittsburgh Regional Transit CEO Katharine Kelleman in a recent presentation to state lawmakers who, along with Gov. Josh Shapiro, hope to create a transportation-transit financial fix that eluded them when they finished the state budget.
Starting Monday, the House and Senate each have 11 voting days left before the end of their two-year session, a stretch in which elections could siphon away interest. And a top Senate Republican has stressed that any funding increase for public transit must be tied to one for road and bridge work.
Ms. Kelleman's agency operates 700 buses, the heavily used ACCESS paratransit service, the Monongahela Incline and light rail. She laid out PRT's financial situation during a Sept. 11 meeting in which she pointed out that Mr. Shapiro's original budget proposal had a $283 million increase for mass transit and related systems — including $39 million for PRT — but the final budget included only $80 million, with $11 million of that for PRT.
"We are still modeling out what changes look like if there is not additional funding from the state," Ms. Kelleman told members of the House Transportation Committee. "Spoiler alert: It's not a pretty picture."
No additional funding increases, she said, would mean service reductions, closing facilities, and having vendors shut down. She added, "It is creating a situation where you have to have a car to live in Pittsburgh. It will crash our Oakland area, our 'eds and meds' that thrive on folks being able to take public transit to come to class and to work."
On Tuesday, Sen. Jay Costa of Allegheny County, the top Democrat in the Senate, said "there is a transit crisis developing in Pennsylvania." Mr. Costa said lawmakers are hashing out possibilities for delivering more money this year to both public transit and transportation infrastructure.
Others are skeptical.
"There are a lot of questions about how they got into this situation where they needed $280 million," Rep. Jim Struzzi, R- Indiana, said on Tuesday of Mr. Shapiro's originally requested amount. "There needs to be a greater measure of accountability on how these funds are used."
Mr. Struzzi, who worked for PennDOT for 14 years before he became a lawmaker, said the General Assembly has to "look at more ways to be more efficient with the monies that we have."
Any funding increase would need approval in both the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate. Republicans are likely to be even more wary of new spending proposals after a post-budget review by the state Independent Fiscal Office projected a $1.6 billion shortfall in the state General Fund in 2025-26.
Sen. Joe Pittman of Indiana County, the Senate Republican majority leader, said earlier this month it would be tough to convince rural Pennsylvanians to spend more on mass transit. And Mr. Pittman said any talk of a transit spending increase must be accompanied by discussion of more money for roads and bridges.
"The harsh reality is that if we're going to deal with both issues, we need a new revenue stream which will not place additional pressure on the General Fund," Mr. Pittman said.
Mr. Shapiro's original proposal was built on a proposed increase in the percentage of statewide sales and use tax proceeds that is transferred into the Public Transportation Trust Fund.
In 2023-24, the transfer percentage of 7.68 meant $1.21 billion was transferred into that fund. Mr. Shapiro sought — but did not get — an increase of 1.75 percentage points. Nonetheless, Democrats believe sales tax revenue is increasing at a rate that would offset bigger transfers for use by mass transit.
Mr. Costa said the real challenge at the moment is finding new revenue sources — other than the state's General Fund — to boost funding for roads and bridges.
One concept is to create a first-ever regulatory structure for the thousands of so-called "skill games" in bars and clubs around the state, including a tax that could benefit transit. Another, Mr. Costa said, is to link vehicle registration fees to traveled mileage and use the increased revenue for transit.
Yet another, in Mr. Costa's view, might be found in a 2021 report issued by the Transportation Revenue Options Commission, created by former Gov. Tom Wolf. One possibility mentioned in the report was instituting a set fee on the delivery of every package within Pennsylvania — and it projected that a $1 fee on every package would generate many hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
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