PA: Sen. Costa hopes road-and-bridge funding in transit bill reduces opposition to it

Democratic Sen. Jay Costa hopes extra provisions added to a bill that puts $293 million into public transit — specifically, ones that arrange for a separate $500 million for road and bridge work — will win over Republican lawmakers and help Pittsburgh Regional Transit maintain service.

The bill that passed the House Tuesday would send about $40 million of the $293 million to PRT. But Mr. Costa said provisions amended into the bill that lets the state issue up to $500 million in bonds to cover road and bridge work could placate longstanding Republican insistence that transit and "infrastructure" money be tied together.

"I believe this resolves both issues," said Mr. Costa, of Allegheny County.

His hometown transit system — PRT — has said it could cut as many as 41 routes if it does not receive more state money. A public comment period on the proposed cuts was scheduled to end Wednesday.

The transit dilemma is one of many in ongoing state budget negotiations. Others include how to deal with uncertainty over how much Medicaid money might come from Washington, and ongoing disagreement over whether a deal on legalized recreational marijuana can be reached this budget season.

In an interview Thursday, Allegheny County Republican Sen. Devlin Robinson said transit money "is going to be one of the biggest subjects of the summer budget season."

Concerning the coupled transit-road-and-bridge funding package, Mr. Robinson said he was willing to take a look, but the final product was likely to be different. Mr. Robinson said there is a "bit of urgency" on the issue, but "we want to make sure it is done right."

The bond-issuance concept was put into the bill by its prime sponsor, Democratic Rep. Ed Neilson of Philadelphia. He told House members the state has more than 120,000 miles of roads and 32,000 bridges, and the amended bill could become "the most significant investment to our roads and bridge in over a decade."

Other provisions in the bill carve out a tiny fraction of the state's sales tax revenue, one-fourth of one percent, to generate money to help cover the road-and-bridge bond payments. A legislative staffer said the provision was projected to generate about $42 million a year.

The bill also calls for the formation of a Transportation Funding Advisory Commission within PennDOT.

The headline of the bill, though, is Gov. Josh Shapiro's call for $293 million more for transit, made possible by a 1.75 percentage point increase in the amount of sales taxes being redirected to the Public Transportation Trust Fund.

Democrats have held rallies to pressure Republicans who control the Senate to agree to the transit boost. Republicans have pointed to an operational budget deficit in which the state already is spending $3 billion more per year than it is bringing in, and they have insisted on a coupling of transit money and road-and-bridge money.

On Wednesday, the Senate Republican majority leader, Joe Pittman of Indiana County, said he had not seen details of the bill that passed the House.

"I am glad the House Democrats acknowledged that roads and bridges need to be part of this conversation," he said. "My sense is they are still putting out numbers that we can't meet under our current fiscal constraints."

Mr. Pittman said PRT and the Philadelphia area's SEPTA have "priced themselves out of the market" by asking for too much money. "There is no way we can deliver $300 million for transit on an annual basis," he said.

Mr. Costa said concerns about the cost might be alleviated if the Legislature and Mr. Shapiro can agree on a mechanism to regulate and tax so-called "skill games." Bills to accomplish that are under discussion, and Mr. Shapiro has anticipated approval of the concept by including $369 million in new revenue in his 2025-26 budget proposal.

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