PA: Gov. Shapiro's quest for Pa. transit, road and bridge money looks daunting

Gov. Josh Shapiro's bring-sides-together mantra will be put to the test in upcoming budget negotiations, and one big-ticket challenge will be the linked budget pieces of public transit funding and road and bridge funding.

Mr. Shapiro, a Democrat, highlighted the link in his Tuesday budget address, saying, "It shouldn't be either-or, it should be both-and."

He proposed putting $292.5 million more into public transit, including an increase of $42 million to $43 million for Pittsburgh Regional Transit. He highlighted how the ongoing reduction of a much-disliked annual transfer of money to state police from the main highway fund is freeing up dollars.

Mr. Shapiro said that while his proposal "delivers to keep our mass transit running," the state should also "deliver more funding for our roads and bridges, especially in our rural communities."

His approach has backing from Allegheny County Sen. Jay Costa, the top Democrat in the Senate. Mr. Costa said "we need to make sure transportation and transit are tied together."

The main rub, as Mr. Costa sees it, is identifying a revenue source to cover the new spending.

Mr. Shapiro's proposal is to increase the amount of sales and use tax revenue directed into the Public Transportation Trust Fund — from which transit agencies receive money — by 1.75 percentage points.

Another potential source that has been discussed is creating a legal framework to regulate and tax the 70,000 or so "skill games" now being used around the state in unregulated fashion. The governor's revenue proposal for 2025-26 includes $368 million from that as-yet-unapproved source.

Mr. Costa said he is optimistic that a deal covering both transit and transportation infrastructure can be reached by June 30. A Republican who is minority chair of the House Appropriations Committee and previously worked for PennDOT, Rep. Jim Struzzi of Indiana County, was troubled by several questions.

"Banking on revenues that don't exist right now," Mr. Struzzi said, is a "risky gamble." Beyond that, he said, he is not certain transit agencies have done all they can to prove efficient use of the state money they already receive.

"I don't understand how transit finds itself in this big of a hole," he said.

The agency in the biggest hole is the Philadelphia region's SEPTA, which was able to temporarily stave off service cuts and a major fare increase in November after Mr. Shapiro threw it a $153 million lifeline. The administration redirected federal money from its previously intended destination — highway projects around the state, including one in Washington County — to SEPTA.

Other agencies are not as hard-pressed, but still say they have needs.

Alan Blahovec, executive director of the Westmoreland County Transit Authority, said the agency runs four commuter bus routes into Pittsburgh and 10 local routes, and has a budget of about $17 million. No "fiscal cliff" is imminent, he said, but more money would allow the authority to run buses later than the current 6:30 p.m. shutoff, and help ensure it can pay competitive wages.

Mr. Blahovec said he'd be talking to lawmakers about Mr. Shapiro's proposal.

While the governor said he would like to see more for road and bridge work, his projected handling of the continuing transfers from the state Motor License Fund left at least one key faction dissatisfied.

The administration projects that $50 million less will be drawn from the Motor License Fund in each of the next several years, freeing up large amounts of money in that fund for road and bridge work. But Robert Latham, executive vice president of Associated Pennsylvania Constructors, said that scheduled reduction is a much slower one than he anticipated.

His organization — whose road- and bridge-building members cover much of a 30,000-employee industry in the state — thought withdrawals to fund the state police were to be reduced by $125 million in each of the next two years. The Motor License Fund is viewed as the main pool of money for road projects, hence keeping money in it is a priority for road builders.

"I don't know why they did that," Mr. Latham said of the $50 million figure. "We are disappointed."

The next public portion of the budget process will be a lengthy series of hearings held by House and Senate committees on Mr. Shapiro's proposal. Those begin later this month.

©2025 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Visit www.post-gazette.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.