Image courtesy of SEPTA Facebook
Six weeks after the constitutionally-mandated deadline for state lawmakers to deliver a budget, a standoff between the two chambers seems as intractable as ever.
And with no action, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) says they’ll move forward with planned cuts to service later this month. The reductions could impact up to 800,000 people who use the transit system daily.
House Democrats shot down a $47.6 billion budget proposal Wednesday that had cleared the GOP-controlled Senate late the night before by a party line vote, effectively prolonging the stalemate.
The Senate’s proposal is about $3 billion less than the one that passed the House last month. The big differences include how to fund public education and different mechanisms for public transportation funding.
House Appropriations Committee Minority Chair Jim Struzzi (R-Indiana) described the GOP-backed budget as more or less a stop-gap, allowing school districts and safety net services to continue functioning.
To Appropriations Chair Jordan Harris (D-Philadelphia), the proposal shows his Republican colleagues lack urgency, even as the threat of a prolonged standoff has community service providers and county officials scrambling.
“The only time you use numbers from last year is early on in the process, to move the process forward until you get an agreed upon number,” Harris said. “This is not something that you do a month-and-a-half after that. Literally last year’s numbers – [that’s] a spending plan that says, ‘We’re not serious.’”
Gov. Josh Shapiro struck a more optimistic tone when speaking with reporters at Ag Progress Days in Centre County on Wednesday afternoon.
“I would not say that we’re far apart,” Shapiro said. “I spent a good bit of time last night with the leader of Democratic caucus, and I spent two hours this morning with the Senate Republican leader, Senator Pittman.”
“We’re making progress,” he added. “I actually thought that the move yesterday in the Senate brought us closer, because what it did was it made clear that the Senate is committed to funding mass transit, which has been a priority of mine.”
House Minority Leader Jesse Topper (R-Bedford/Fulton), however, said Shapiro should get more involved with negotiations.
Though Topper acknowledged urgency may be increasing, he said that no budget would be passed until lawmakers embrace “a sense of reality … We’re getting a state budget when the realism sets in for everyone as to what the state can afford moving forward.”
The proposal rejected by House Democrats funneled $300 million in state gaming revenue to help prevent SEPTA service cuts and pay for road and bridge projects throughout the commonwealth.
Public transportation entities in rural, suburban and urban areas get money from the Public Transportation Trust Fund earmarked separately for operations and capital.
Under the Senate’s plan from Tuesday, they could transfer some of those capital funds to pay for operations.
Absent a deal by Thursday, SEPTA’s planning to reduce service by 20 percent starting Aug. 24. But according to General Manager Scott Sauer, the Republican-backed bill would not have staved off the cuts.
“The use of capital dollars for operating does not solve our problem,” Sauer told the House Rules Committee Wednesday afternoon. “It creates a new one.”
Namely, delaying crucial operating initiatives, he said.
Among the projects that SEPTA says they fund with the money that would have gone to their operating budget, are a long-term train car modernization project. Some of their regional rail cars are more than 50 years old, and, according to Sauer, have led to fires and potentially unsafe conditions for riders. The multi-year replacement project is expected to cost around $1.8 billion over roughly 10 years, according to Sauer.
They’d also have to increase fares – unless they can get a waiver – in line with the Consumer Price Index next year, in 2027 and then biannually. SEPTA and Pittsburgh Regional Transit would face more stringent accountability and performance requirements as well.
The bill has criminal justice components, too, including making the SETPA special prosecutor role permanent and cracking down on drug dealing and assaults on operators.
Transit funding under the latest House proposal would entail diverting another 1.75 percent of sales tax, which Republicans oppose.
The two proposed budget plans also differ on education, with the Senate’s proposal keeping funding at a flat rate.
Specifically, it would distribute $500 million through a funding formula established last year to benefit underfunded school districts, after the Commonwealth Court found the previous funding method unconstitutionally inequitable. Democrats say that last year’s funding was only a first step towards remedying the situation, and that flat funding might run afoul of the court’s ruling. They called for an additional $526 million in the House budget.
It’s unclear what will happen next, or when a budget will be ready. The House has scheduled Appropriations Committee meetings every day through the rest of the month, though it’s unlikely they will meet for them all.
House leaders and Shapiro have also said negotiations continue. But as it stands, both sides, while acknowledging they’ll have to compromise, appear to be dug in for now.
The longer the fight drags out, the more transit agencies in rural, urban and suburban areas, government services and county operations will face cuts, impacting Pennsylvanians and their communities
“There’s a willingness now, it looks like, in both chambers, to recognize the challenge,” House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D-Montgomery) told reporters. “Now we’ve gotta fill in some of the blanks and realize not everyone’s going to get what they want.”
John Cole contributed to this report.
Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: [email protected].
