Lincoln Blog
July 23, 2010:
There he goes again.
Governor Ed Rendell is once again threatening (planning) to flex - or divert - federal highway funds to plug a massive spending deficit in the state's two major mass transit systems.
This as the governor parades around the state decrying the condition of our roads and bridges. He is asking for additional fees and taxes to address the commonwealth's crumbling infrastructure. But, it is his own policy of continually diverting federal highway funds to mass transit that has caused the deplorable condition of our state's roads and bridges. Had Rendell allowed federal highway funds to be used for, well for highways, then we wouldn't have the problems that currently exist.
As is typical of this administration, Rendell has taken this approach for political purposes. He knows there does not exist across Penn's Woods the popular support for raising taxes or fees to fund mass transit. SEPTA in Philadelphia and PAT in Pittsburgh are used by comparatively few Pennsylvanians. Folks across the length and breadth of the state do not want to pay to subsidize these transit systems.
This is particularly true as Rendell and everyone associated with either SEPTA or PAT have refused to address the cause of those agencies' funding shortfall. The fact is they are bloated bureaucracies rife with patronage of both the jobs and pinstripe variety. They are models of inefficiency that simply suck up every available dollar and then some.
Rather than reform SEPTA and PAT, Rendell has opted to continue feeding the beast. And he has done so at the expense of the rest of the state by using our highway funds.
Once again Rendell is using the highway money as a political battering ram. He wants legislators from rural and suburban areas not serviced by mass transit to vote for higher taxes and fees to pay for highways. The way he plans to get those votes is to continue diverting money to SEPTA and PAT, aggravating the highway crisis.
With less than six months to go in Rendell's term the legislature ought to say no. It is time for the General Assembly to stop giving into the governor's blackmail and refuse to appropriate another dime to mass transit until and unless those systems clean up their acts.
In the meantime, let's hope our new governor approaches transportation funding with a bit more common sense.
