Rendell seeks fees for transit
HARRISBURG – Gov. Ed Rendell on Tuesday called for increasing state fees on, among other things, the purchase of new tires and emission inspection stickers as a way to keep mass transit agencies from having to cut services and hike fares. Surrounded by a dozen like-minded lawmakers from both parties at a Capitol press conference, the governor explained his proposal would raise $110 million to cover a $95 million deficit among agencies like SEPTA and Port Authority of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh’s mass transit system.
But immediately after Rendell spoke, spokesmen for Republican majority leaders in both the House and Senate denounced the fee hikes as both ill-timed and unlikely to get a hearing before the legislative session ends Nov. 30.
“To come in now with a proposal that doubles fees shows a stunning lack of leadership,” said Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader David Brightbill, R-48 (Berks). “We’ll look at temporary stopgap measures, but I don’t anticipate dramatic increases being warmly received in the Senate.”
The proposed increases would triple the surcharge on buying new tires from $1 to $3 and double the fee on car rentals from $2 to $4.
Additionally, a $2 emissions inspection fee would be instituted and the cost of requesting driving records would be bumped from $5 to $12.
The governor and lawmakers emphasized that even if the Legislature were to approve the fees, it would only be a Band-Aid on a mass transit system badly in need of financial restructuring. But they said cash is needed now if riders are to avoid the fare increases and cuts in weekend and night service that SEPTA has warned is forthcoming if it doesn’t get more money.
Sensitive to criticism that Philadelphia gets too much of the state’s attention and dollars, Rendell said this is not just a SEPTA issue. Most every urban and rural public transit system is strapped for dollars and would share in the money raised by the fee hikes, he said.
State Rep. Michael McGeehan, D-173 (Philadelphia), took pains to paint the hikes as an economic development issue. He noted that when SEPTA closed some rail stations in the past it had a “devastating effect” on the local economy.
In the long run it would cost the state more money if it let mass transit systems atrophy than to hike some fees now, he said.
For months, the idea floating around the Capitol involved increasing the gas tax and using some of that extra money for mass transit and green-lighting projects like the Route 202 bypass. But Rendell put an end to that plan Tuesday when he said neither he nor the Legislature had an appetite for forcing drivers to pay more at the pump.
Asked how he could rationalize fee hikes at the same time lawmakers were considering raising their salaries, Rendell said it is important to look at the big picture.
“This is cost effective because when we shut down the (mass transit) systems we end up paying because of the effect on economic development,” he said. “And in terms of the pay increase, you have to look at that in context of everything else. I’m going to need some hard persuading on (approving a pay increase).”
Meanwhile, Arneson said the Senate is going to need a lot of persuading that mass transit needs $95 million, approximately $60 million of which would go to SEPTA and $30 million to the Pittsburgh system.
One partial solution is for the Legislature to raise the cap on how much money mass transit gets from the state sales tax.
Currently, a percentage of the sales tax goes to mass transit but there’s a cap on the number of actual dollars that may flow to SEPTA and other systems.
Raising that cap would net mass transit about $24 million more a year, Arneson said. That still leaves the state’s mass transit about $71 million in the red and with a fee hike proposal that seems to have little legislative support outside the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas.
“My leader has made clear: ‘Dedicated funding for mass transit is something that is not going to happen,'” said Stephen Miskin, spokesman for House Majority Leader Sam Smith, R-66 (Jefferson).
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Rick Martinez can be reached at 717-705-6330 or rmartinez@calkins-media.com