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PAT closer to balancing new budget
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission voted 37 to 10 Wednesday to divert $113.4 million of federal and state highway money to help keep Port Authority buses and light rail service running until 2007.
"It is an important, temporary solution," said Stephen Donahue, of Bloomfield, co-founder of the city-based advocacy group Save Our Transit. "Without this stop-gap measure, we might not have a public transit system to fight for in a couple of years."
In March, Gov. Ed Rendell reserved $412 million of unanticipated state and federal highway revenue to help transit agencies in the state.
The regional commission approved handing Port Authority the first $25.3 million installment in March to help balance the struggling transit agency's previous budget for fiscal 2004-05, which ended June 30. The commission determines how federal highway and transit dollars are spent in the 10-county region.
Port Authority's fiscal 2005-06 budget, which started July 1, relies on receiving $45 million of the diverted money, called a flex. Port Authority also counts on gaining at least $19 million in concessions from union workers to balance its $319.8 million budget.
The transit agency is the nation's 15th largest and serves about 70 million riders annually in the county and portions of Armstrong, Beaver, Washington and Westmoreland counties. It wants state lawmakers to create more reliable annual financing.
The commission's approval also diverted $2.3 million to the Beaver County Transit Authority and $145,368 to the Mid Mon Valley Transit Authority. The money will be issued to the transit agencies as needed.
Yesterday's vote was much closer than the one in March when the commission approved the $25.3 million installment with just two dissenting votes.
That 10 commissioners voted against the latest installment shows that some officials are growing increasingly frustrated with the inability of state lawmakers to resolve the financial crisis for transit agencies.
"We're just throwing money away here and not getting a solution," said Jim Scahill, an Armstrong County commissioner and Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission member. "You're letting the Legislature off the hook."
Scahill was among a group of rural commissioners from Armstrong, Butler, Fayette and Indiana counties who voted against the measure.
Port Authority's current budget includes $229.7 million in grants, including state and county subsidies.
We Move Pennsylvania, a conglomeration of labor and construction organizations, says the region represented by SPC will lose $82 million in highway work because of the money shift. The group did not respond to requests for comment.
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