PA: Editorial | Restoring state transit funding isn't a bailout. It's an investment in a public good

Efficient, robust, safe public transit is a public good that's essential to economic development, population growth and regional prosperity. Site selectors look for strong transit connections when advising corporate clients about locations for expansion. Poor transit options limit access to jobs, leading more people to require other forms of government assistance. Only public transit allows for the kind of residential and commercial density that makes growth possible in cities — including nearly all in Pennsylvania — that have already been built out.

Public transit is not a luxury. It is not an optional accessory to Pennsylvania's transportation systems; rather, it is essential to making those systems function properly. Additional road-miles traveled by car, in the absence of transit, would worsen congestion while shortening the lifespan of the roads themselves, increasing costly maintenance. Urban life as we know it — that is, for at least the past 150 years — depends on the ability to move large groups of people, and dense urban developments are the primary drivers of growth. This includes small cities with less well-known, but still essential, transit systems such as Greensburg, Johnstown and Altoona.

Public transit is not a utility. That is, it cannot be priced anywhere near the cost of providing the service, because that would defeat the purpose of the service. In this regard, it's like other transportation systems, including roads, the cost of whose construction and maintenance is socialized. Even for-profit air travel is heavily subsidized, especially for small communities (under the federal government's Essential Air Service program) where airline service would never be profitable on its own. This is because even those who don't use a particular road, flight, train or bus benefit from the social and economic dynamism the connectivity makes possible.

This is why the Pennsylvania General Assembly should not propose, nor should Gov. Josh Shapiro sign, a state budget that does not include restored funding for public transit across the commonwealth. Getting there, when there are so many incentives against the kind of bipartisan deal-making that would make it possible, is the hard part.

Dire situation

The lion's share of funding for transit authorities in Pennsylvania comes from the state. For instance, for its 2025-2026 fiscal year, Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) foresees nearly 80% of its government funding and 65% of its overall revenues coming from Harrisburg.

This funding is subject to periodic crises when short-term solutions to the problem of state funding expire. This time, it was a combination of the end of transfers from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority to PennDOT and the expiration of federal pandemic relief funds. PRT has threatened 35% service cuts and its southeastern counterpart, SEPTA, has threatened 40% service cuts if nothing is done.

If even half of those cuts came to pass, it would devastate transit service and hobble regional economies. Less frequent, less reliable service results in ridership losses that are difficult to recover.

Pennsylvania's level of state funding, as opposed to local funding, for public transit is unusually high. We believe this is justified, as argued above, but it's not unreasonable to suggest that the funding burden should be shifted somewhat onto counties themselves to fund their services. But there's a problem: State law prohibits counties and municipalities from levying taxes to fund transit. Unless and until that is changed — and we hope that it might be during this budget negotiation cycle — it falls to state leaders to properly invest in transit across the commonwealth.

Political quagmire

Unfortunately, however, the current structure of the state's, and the country's, political system works against achieving constructive solutions, especially when it comes to policies that look like "big city issues." Republican legislators, who overwhelmingly represent rural and suburban communities, have every incentive not to devote state dollars to transit because they will be pilloried, and possibly challenged and defeated in a closed primary, by the right wing of their own party.

Conversely, Democratic legislators have every incentive not to offer the kind of compromise — such supporting the state's fossil fuel industry or enhanced school choice — that might get Republicans to budge, due to the threat of punishment from their left flank. This also goes for Mr. Shapiro, who is obviously eyeing a future presidential run, during which he would have to survive a bruising Democratic primary.

Pennsylvania's divided government, with the GOP holding the Senate while Democrats hold the House and the Governor's Office, should be a good setup for a grand bargain. But in today's ideologically and geographically polarized politics, it simply becomes a quagmire.

Framework for a deal

Achieving a durable solution for transit funding will require the public making clear that the political costs of inaction will be greater than those of striking a compromise. Here's one option: Democrats get a transit funding solution, while Republicans get some version of the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS) school choice program that Mr. Shapiro proposed two years ago, before taking it off the table at the 11th hour.

Transit funding can and should include empowering counties and municipalities to raise their own revenues for their own systems. It should also include an increased share of state sales tax revenues going to transit, as Mr. Shapiro has proposed. Legislators should also consider new revenues, such as the increased vehicle lease and rental taxes proposed by local Democratic Sen. Lindsey Williams and Reps. Aerion Abney and Jessica Benham.

We'd also like to see legislation that enhances transit-oriented development, including expanding pathways for agencies to profit from transit-adjacent land they own.

Whatever the solution, it should be a durable one. Expiring commitments, like bleeding the Turnpike dry to fund PennDOT, don't allow for the kind of funding certainty it takes for agencies to make big and bold commitments to enhancing their services.

Transit is a public good, but it'll take compromise and political courage to ensure that good is available to as many people as possible. Whether Pennsylvania's leaders are up to the task remains to be seen.

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