PA Senate Approves Budget

Capitolwire: Transportation plan passes Senate before chamber recesses for summer.
By Christopher Lilienthal Staff ReporterCapitolwire
HARRISBURG (July 16) – Before leaving for a two-month summer recess, the state Senate sent a transportation and mass transit-funding plan to the House that will average $946 million in new annual funding over the next 10 years.
The Senate's passage of this legislation satisfied a major budget demand of Gov. Ed Rendell and House and Senate Democrats.
Senate Transportation Chairman Roger Madigan, R-Bradford, said the bill “is the best possible solution in a 'no new taxes' environment to deal with a problem that affects Pennsylvanians in their everyday lives.”
The plan, largely crafted by Sen. Vince Fumo, D-Philadelphia, was approved by a vote of 30-19, with most Democrats and 11 Republicans supporting it.
The plan will move up a scheduled 25 percent Pennsylvania Turnpike fare hike for 2010 to 2009, borrow against future toll revenue and toll Interstate 80. It also calls for dedicating a portion of the sales tax for mass transit, and giving Allegheny County the option to impose a $2-per-vehicle car rental tax and a by-the-drink tax.
Madigan said: “We have created a fund that shouldn't have to be addressed for decades. … I believe we have done our share and then some."
Several senators representing rural parts of northern Pennsylvania, where I-80 passes through, said the plan would burden locals who regularly commute on that highway.
Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, also said the plan sends too much money to Philadelphia and Allegheny County “for mass transit and not nearly enough for the badly needed road and bridge projects in my region.”
Baker also objected to a plan that relies on new borrowing to fund road and bridge repairs.
“I don’t think this bill is the solution for the people of my district or the people of rural Pennsylvania,” she said.
Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, whose district is part of the Philadelphia region and home to mass-transit users, urged support for the plan, while acknowledging that it may not meet everyone’s liking.
“It’s a compromise. Obviously, you can’t please everyone,” he said.
Fumo agreed, noting that it was the best plan the Senate could craft to better fund roads, highways, bridges and mass transit.
Sen. John Gordner, R-Columbia, questioned whether the state would get the federal approval to toll I-80. He noted that such approval is premised on the type of highway and the type of federal program authorizing tolling.
A federal official in the U.S. Department of Transportation wrote to Madigan earlier this month to confirm that there were slots available in federal programs to allow for the tolling of I-80, consistent with the state’s proposal. CLICK HERE for that story.
Beyond the tolling issue, Gordner said the bill would have a devastating effect on residents, workers and economic development throughout the state.
The plan passed with the support of 11 Republicans and 19 Democrats. Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Lehigh, voted against it, along with the rest of the Senate Republicans. Sen. Michael Stack, D-Philadelphia, did not vote.
The bill now heads to the House, where leaders plan to hold a vote on it Tuesday morning.
Gov. Ed Rendell originally proposed leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private company and assessing a new tax on the gross profits of oil companies to raise a needed $1.7 billion in new annual funding for transportation and transit. That figure was calculated by a commission created by Rendell to study the funding issue.
In the face of legislative opposition to those proposals, Rendell agreed to the Fumo-crafted plan, which was first proposed by the Turnpike Commission, after Fumo gave it to them.
Rendell said he would sign it and accept it as a replacement to his leasing plan as long as it came close to generating $1 billion a year in new funding.
Fumo’s staff estimates that the bill next year will generate $750 million – $300 million for transit and $450 million for roads and bridges; in 2008-09, $850 million - $350 million for transit and $500 million for roads and bridges; and in 2009-10, $900 million - $400 million for transit and $500 million for roads and bridges.
Over 10 years, the plan is expected to raise an average of about $946 million a year: $532 million, on average, for roads, highways and bridges, and $414 million for mass transit, with about 70 percent of that sum going to the Philadelphia region's mass transit agency, SEPTA.
The transportation legislation and the state fiscal bill were voted upon after 11 p.m. Unlike House rules, Senate rules allow votes after 11 p.m. if a resolution is passed explaining why extra session time is necessary. A resolution to that effect was introduced and passed, said Senate GOP spokesman Erik Arneson.