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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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CONTACT: |
Majority Leader Bill DeWeese
Majority Whip Keith
McCall |
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House Democratic transportation plan means
smoother ride for every Pennsylvanian – and no gas tax hike
Plan to repair roads and bridges and fund mass transit passes legislature
HARRISBURG, July 17 – House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, Whip Keith McCall and Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Markosek said today’s House passage of a comprehensive transportation plan will make fundamental improvements to the state’s roads and bridges and mass transit systems of all sizes without raising the gas tax.
“Our roads, bridges, railways, ports and airports are the nexus that move our workers to the job, our raw materials to factories and our goods to market, and that nexus was neglected for far too long,” said DeWeese, D-Greene/Fayette/Washington. “This plan ends the annual funding battles for our mass transit systems and gives us the tools we need to provide a safer, smoother ride for our entire Commonwealth.”
“We have more than a quarter-million miles of roads that need to be maintained, nearly 6,000 bridges that are in need of immediate repair and transit systems that are facing collapse. The time to act was long overdue,” said McCall, D-Carbon. “Our economy can’t move without a quality transportation system, so investing in transportation is investing in businesses and job creation.”
“It’s easy to be misled when you’re talking about mass transit,” said Markosek, D-Allegheny. “Some people think that mass transit only means Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but there are dozens of smaller systems around the state that are a literal lifeline for people to get to work, to school and to the doctor – especially for our seniors who depend on shared ride programs in rural counties. Before today, these transit systems had to roll the dice every year hoping for funding, but now we’ve created a stable funding plan that gives the largest percentage increases to systems in rural areas that are struggling to survive.
“For the first time, we are creating a Public Transportation Trust Fund that will be used for public mass transit. We also will require local municipalities to match 15 percent of the state’s funding and pass rigorous performance audits based on passengers, costs, revenue and number of trips.”
The Democratic lawmakers said the plan addresses the road and bridge issue as well as the transit crisis by financing available through the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to raise more than $5 billion in revenue and by placing a toll on Interstate 80 to capture revenue from the out-of-state traffic – nearly 80 percent of the total traffic on that highway.
“We want the impact on local residents to be the absolute minimum with these tolls,” McCall said. “Right now there are thousands of cars and big trucks from out-of-state that are damaging our roads and bridges, and when they leave the state, they leave the maintenance bill in the hands of the Pennsylvania taxpayer. This plan makes everyone who uses I-80 pay a fair share, and the first $150 million raised every year goes right back into maintaining and improving that interstate.”
“As the House Transportation Committee chairman, I have made it a priority to convince my colleagues in the General Assembly to develop a dedicated and sustainable source of revenue for transportation,” Markosek said. “This year, we finally made headway and can provide historic levels of funding to transit agencies across Pennsylvania and to maintenance programs for roads and bridges. Our infrastructure is deteriorating and becoming unstable and unsafe – we absolutely could not put this off any further. This was a huge victory for the citizens of Pennsylvania.”
The new revenue will deliver an average of $946 million per year for transportation in the state, with $411 million going to mass transit systems statewide and $500 million going to roads and bridges, with $35 million new dollars per year (a 10 percent increase) to counties and municipalities to repair and maintain roads and bridges not owned by the state.
The legislation (H.B. 1590) heads to the governor’s desk.
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