(The Philadelphia Inquirer posted the following story by Jere Downs on its website on October 8.)
PHILADELPHIA — SEPTA will soon get some budget relief, under an unorthodox plan endorsed yesterday by regional and state officials that would shift highway construction funds to the transit agency’s operating budget.
With the budget impasse still unresolved in Harrisburg and no relief in sight, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission gave preliminary approval yesterday to a shift of $15 million previously reserved for Route 309 reconstruction to SEPTA, said Don Shanis, the commission’s transportation director.
The shift will reduce SEPTA’s $41 million budget deficit to $26 million, easing the agency’s cash-flow problems until late winter.
It is generally considered taboo for states to shift construction dollars to operating budgets. However, the Rendell administration and PennDot crafted this solution last month.
During the spring, the agency had proposed making $25 million in service cuts, which would have included the abandonment of four Regional Rail lines, and imposing $15 million in fare hikes. The agreement should give the agency time to explore solutions to balance its $841 million budget without resorting to dramatic cuts or fare increases.
The unanimous vote by the Regional Transportation Committee’s 25 members is an “emergency measure,” Shanis said. The committee is composed of representatives from Philadelphia, PennDot, Gov. Rendell’s office, SEPTA, and suburban counties in South Jersey and Pennsylvania and various other municipalities and agencies.
“The region wanted the point to be known [that] they are not going to do this all the time,” Shanis added.
SEPTA general manager Faye Moore said yesterday that the agency was grateful to the Regional Planning Commission. “We are grateful to anyone else who is helpful.”
The shifting of funds does not presently affect the ongoing reconstruction of Route 309 in Montgomery County, Shanis said, because engineering work has slowed that project.
PennDot annually shifts $20 million to $25 million of federal highway construction dollars toward transit construction projects, as allowed by the federal Transportation Equity Act.
The transfer of federal transportation funds to pay for transit fuel, salaries and other operating expenses is rare, Greg Brown, Rendell’s representative on the committee, said in an interview late last month.
Earlier this year, Rendell sliced $11 million from SEPTA’s operating funds – which also eliminated matching funds from local counties to bring the total overall cut to $15 million. SEPTA attributes the rest of its $41 million budget problem to overall insufficient state transit funding.
The budget stalemate continues in Harrisburg between Rendell and the GOP-controlled General Assembly over raising taxes and legalizing slot machines to providing funding for the governor’s education agenda and property tax plan.
“This buys SEPTA time,” Brown said. “It also buys time for the House and the Senate.”
Pittsburgh’s troubled Port Authority received similar relief from Allegheny County and state officials in September, when $10 million earmarked for highway construction was directed to the transit agency. The Port Authority’s financial woes are of a similar scale to SEPTA’s. Pittsburgh’s transit agency had faced a $19 million deficit out of an operating budget of $276 million.
The board of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission – which apportions the use of virtually all state and federal transportation funds in South Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania – is expected to finalize the measure at a meeting on Oct. 23.