What’s at stake over proposed increase in mass transit funding in Pa.?

“If they cut the 32 bus especially, there goes my job. There goes my place to live. It’d put my freedom on the line.”

Andrew Long has lived in South Philadelphia for the past six years and uses mass transit nearly every single day.

“I don’t own a car, so it’s my only way to get to work and get to like appointments and everywhere I need to go to hang out with friends, get home from the bar,” Long said. “Literally like anything I go to, I use SEPTA.”

Long has been involved with Transit for All PA, an advocacy group pushing for increased mass transit funding across the commonwealth, since December. He joined not long after Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA)  announced it would need to increase fares and drastically cut services unless state lawmakers increase their funding.

If SEPTA follows through, Long said he’s concerned about how he’d be able to get to work.

“This is really important to me, and I really hope that these budget cuts don’t have to be implemented,” he said.

SEPTA has warned without new funding, it will have to eliminate 50 bus routes and five regional rail lines, reduce service by 20% across the board, and institute a 9 p.m. curfew. The transit agency passed a budget in late June that would implement some service cuts next month  unless funding is increased. It says it’s facing a deficit of $213 million.

But SEPTA is not alone.

Across the state, mass transit systems are facing budget shortfalls that could impact funding for some one million Pennsylvanians who rely on them daily in urban, suburban and rural regions.

Pittsburgh Regional Transit is looking at eliminating 54 bus routes, cutting service by 35%, raising fares by 9% and instituting an 11 p.m. curfew. The system is seeking an additional $117 million.

The Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (LANTA), said it’s facing a 20% service cut and a 35% fare raise, its largest scaleback in decades. It’s looking for a $6.5 million dollar increase.

The York County-based rabbittransit, which serves 11 counties in southcentral Pennsylvania and is part of the Susquehanna Regional Transit Authority (SRTA), has said it could lose 25% of its bus routes. Gov. Josh Shapiro has proposed sending it an additional $5.7 million.

For Sarah Stottlemyer, rabbittransit’s Harrisburg-area bus lines are more than her primary transportation method. They’re freedom.

“I rely on the bus every day, Monday through Friday, to get to appointments during the day and then at night for work,” she said. “If they cut the 32 bus especially, there goes my job. There goes my place to live. It’d put my freedom on the line.”

Sottlemyer, 34, is on probation after multiple simple assault charges, but she said she’s gotten sober and is working to rebuild her life.

But if she was no longer able to get to her job, she’d risk not making rent or violating the requirements of  her parole.

“I’d be going to jail, if not to a halfway house,” Stottlemyer said.

Even a reduction of service and not an outright cut to her bus lines, could have a large impact for Stottlemyer. She commutes more than 10 miles from Harrisburg to Palmyra, and then back again, for her warehouse job. Less frequent buses could mean leaving for work even earlier.

And the impacts won’t only affect fixed-route systems like traditional bus and train lines. As reported by Spotlight PA, the state’s shared-ride program, which is particularly important for rural, elderly and disabled Pennsylvanians, is at-risk.

With agencies serving all 67 Pennsylvania counties warning of similar setbacks, transportation funding has emerged as one of the most pressing issues during current budget negotiations in Harrisburg.

Shapiro has advocated for the funding of mass transit since he’s been in office.

In his February budget address, Shapiro proposed raising the share of the state’s sales tax that goes to transit funding from 7.68% to 9.43%. He said this would generate nearly $300 million annually without raising taxes.

He applauded efforts in the state House to pass legislation on multiple occasions that would have increased funding, although the bill did not pass in the GOP-majority Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R-Indiana) told reporters last month that his caucus could “live without” a transit funding boost, with the budget facing a structural deficit. But he has since said Republicans are open to the idea if it’s paired with a hike in more traditional infrastructure funding for road and bridge projects.

But, some Republican lawmakers representing rural areas are hesitant to boost state dollars for mass transit systems that they believe primarily benefit urban areas.

Sen. Cris Dush (R-Jefferson) penned a letter last month explaining his opposition to providing additional funding for SEPTA and referred to bus trains and operators as “chauffers.”

Rep. Doyle Heffley (R-Carbon) said the funding amounts to his constituents “paying for somebody else’s discounted ride or somebody else’s free ride with no accountability.”

But, 81-year-old Mary Babil takes issue with such characterizations, noting public transit plays an essential role for many Pennsylvanians, especially seniors, disabled people and others who can’t drive or afford cars.

“They should be in our shoes,” she said while waiting for a bus in Harrisburg. “A lot of people do rely on the bus to get them back-and-forth to work, and if they cut one of the routes that’s going across the river or wherever, and people can’t get there, they don’t have money for a taxi.”

Babil has never had a driver’s license. She uses the bus to get to the grocery store, Walmart and doctor’s appointments two or three times a week. When she needs to see her doctor across the Susquehanna River in Enola, she uses the state-backed shared ride service that’s funded, in part, by revenue brought in by more traditional mass transit.

Until recently, Babil relied on her niece to get around. But when her niece’s mom got sick, Babil urged her to take more time for herself.

“I wouldn’t let her do it anymore,” Babil said. “It would wear her out.”

So, like many other older people she knows, she began relying on the rabbittransit system, which offers a free ride pass to seniors 65 and over.

“A lot of them don’t have anyone to take them anywhere, just like grocery shopping,” Babil said. “Some of them — or most of them — don’t have relatives to take them around, and they really don’t have the money, but if they have these passes, it can get them where they’re going.”

Kim Whetsell, executive director of the Pennsylvania Public Transportation Association, a trade organization representing transportation agencies across the state, said, “even if you don’t have a bus rolling through your street that’s a fixed route, you have public transportation in your county.

“We’re talking about the smaller [buses] that maybe you’re not seeing every day that are picking up an older adult to go to an appointment or go to the grocery store. That’s actually the bulk of what our state is made up of when it comes to transportation, the smaller, rural communities that are utilizing that shared ride program.”

How did we get here?

The creep towards a mass transit fiscal crisis has not taken anyone in Harrisburg by surprise.

The last time lawmakers struck a major deal to fund transportation was when they passed Act 89 in 2013. That effort raised the gas tax, directing revenue to the state’s mass transit systems and for the repair of roads and bridges.

The agreement brought in roughly $2.3 billion per year, divided between mass transit and transportation infrastructure. But, it was less than what PennDOT had hoped for at the time.

The deal itself helped to offset deficiencies in a previous transit-funding initiative, which dates to 2007 when then-Gov. Ed Rendell pushed to put tolls on I-80 and use the revenue to fund transportation projects. The idea was shot down by federal regulators, and the legislature instead raised Pa. Turnpike tolls to fund mass transit and transportation-related infrastructure projects.

But in 2022, the Turnpike toll revenue sent to PennDOT for  transportation projects dropped steeply, as scheduled. Those funds were replaced with revenue from the motor vehicle sales tax, and is one reason lawmakers are scrambling to find a new source.

A 2021 report commissioned by former Gov. Tom Wolf found the gas tax is simply not as reliable of a source of revenue as it used to be. That’s in part because gas-fueled vehicles have become much more efficient, and electric alternatives are taking a bigger share of the market. And the costs of maintaining transit systems and roads have grown.

While the issue has persisted for years, a series of temporary measures have allowed the system to function without an overhaul of its funding source.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, ridership across virtually all transit agencies tanked. Even now, with a larger share of the workforce working remotely at least part time, ridership has not returned to  pre-pandemic levels.

But temporary federal funding intended to curb the pandemic’s impacts helped transit agencies get through the last few years.

“While it didn’t cover the full gap, it gave us time to think — where we could cut costs, what we could do — while also not being in a downward spiral at the same time,” said Leslie Richards, the former PennDOT secretary and the president of SEPTA during the pandemic. “We were losing a million dollars a day.”

And last year, when lawmakers passed over negotiating a mass transit deal to focus on education funding in the 2024 budget, Shapiro unilaterally propped up SEPTA.

In November, he transferred $153 million in federal highway capital funds to the Philadelphia-area transit authority to avoid immediate fare increases and service cuts. This move was widely criticized by Republicans, even those who had previously voted for an increase in transportation funding.

Now, lawmakers again find themselves having to look at the structural shortfall facing transportation funding around the state.

Unlike in 2013, there is no clear source of new revenue to divert to transportation projects, or at least little political will to raise new taxes. Proposals to bring in new revenue have been made, such as regulating skill games and recreational marijuana.

However it’s done, elected leaders are hoping for a long-term solution.

“Here’s what I can guarantee you about our state budget: it will be a package of compromises, and I’m working very, very hard to make sure that funding for mass transit is part of that compromise package,” Shapiro added.

The governor’s office didn’t respond to a list of questions submitted by the Capital-Star about transit funding and ongoing budget negotiations.

Where do lawmakers stand? 

Last month, the House passed a transportation funding package that would invest nearly $300 million of new funding into mass transit and $500 million to repair roads and bridges. But senate GOP lawmakers have yet to advance the legislation.

“Well, to us, that’s the highest priority we have,” Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny) told PCN. “Senate Democrats stand 23 strong ready to support the governor’s mass transit proposal that has come over from the House on multiple occasions.”

Even if every Democrat in the Senate supported the governor’s mass transit proposal, at least two Republicans would be needed to get it across the finish line.

“We have to do something,” House Transportation Committee chair Ed Neilson (D-Philadelphia) said. “And I think now’s the time.”

Neilson said passing transportation funding would benefit the whole commonwealth, while noting that the southeast is a significant driving force behind the revenue generated in the state.

Former PennDOT Secretary and SEPTA general manager Leslie Richards agrees.

“There just seems to be a disconnect of the impact that investments in transit have on the broader economy,” Richards said. “Money raised in the Philadelphia region that goes to Harrisburg is a huge part of the general fund. Harrisburg should be very concerned with making southeastern Pennsylvania as economically viable as possible.”

The Philadelphia-area economy is dependent, she said, on employees and customers alike being able to commute to their jobs and to shop at local businesses.

On top of Shapiro’s proposal to dedicate more sales tax revenue to transit, Sens. Nikil Saval (D-Philadelphia) and Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny) are pushing for more new funding. The pair have introduced a package of bills that would institute a 6% excise fee on ride share companies like Lyft and Uber, increase of the daily vehicle rental fee from the $2 rate set in 1991 to $6.50 and raise the car lease tax from 3% to 5%.

“These are services that benefit from our transportation network, and sometimes provide first mile or last mile services when it comes to transit, but in no ways do they contribute to it,” Saval said.

Connor Descheemaker, the campaign manager at Transit for all PA, a coalition of mass transit riders workers and advocates who are pushing for Saval and Williams’ eponymous bills, said Harrisburg could also  \allow local governments to levy their own taxes to fund transit.

“We’re forbidden by the state government from doing that,” Descheemaker said.

Unless lawmakers come to an agreement, transit agencies across the state may begin cutting services as soon as next month.

On a Monday afternoon in Harrisburg, dozens of people waited at the Market Street transfer station as buses dropped people off, picked them up and fanned out across the area.

Some were elderly, some disabled, and others didn’t have or simply didn’t want to take a car.

For riders like Kevin Dunklebarger, 48, a cut to the number of bus routes or their frequency could have serious impacts. It’s something he’s thought about since seeing “Save Our Service” signs go up on the buses.

Dunklebarger loads trucks at a store on Union Deposit Road outside the city of Harrisburg. Like others who use transit, he can’t afford a car and  relies on the bus to get his groceries, go to stores and appointments, or anywhere else he can’t walk.

“If it ran less frequently, then I’d have to leave a lot earlier or I’d have to cut my hours at work,” he said. “It would affect me immensely.”

And he’s not alone.

According to rabbittransit, around 9,200 people rely on their services every day. And that’s one of only 53 transit systems in the state, virtually all of which say they’re facing monetary crises unless lawmakers find a way to new funding.