(The following story by Jere Downs, Mario Cattabiani and John Sullivan appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on November 19.)
PHILADELPHIA — State legislators scoured obscure agencies yesterday to cobble together enough dollars to bail out mass-transit agencies across the state, while SEPTA officials mulled a 38 percent fare hike to preserve weekend service.
The effort came as key lawmakers in the House and Senate said they would not support a $110 million package of increases in motor vehicle fees forwarded earlier this week by mostly Democratic legislators and Gov. Rendell. To survive, transit agencies statewide have lobbied for $282 million in state funding.
Throughout yesterday, Republican legislative aides were trying to locate unspent government funds in accounts throughout Harrisburg.
Erik Arneson, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader David J. Brightbill (R., Lebanon), said Republicans might turn to lottery funds to raise as much as $100 million. Lawmakers would then need to find the money in the 2006 fiscal year to replace the lottery money.
Without assurances that the state will mend SEPTA’s $62 million budget gap, the transit agency’s board plans to meet Dec. 2 to consider previously announced plans to end weekend service, lay off 1,400 employees, and raise fares 25 percent.
Yesterday, the 15-member SEPTA board bounced around six options to enact if the requested state funding is not received. Most went deeper than the current plan to skim 20 percent of weekday service to save “lifeline” weekend routes serving hospitals, nursing homes, shopping centers, and the tourism industry.
“We have until Saturday morning to have the House and Senate do something,” SEPTA chairman Pasquale T. “Pat” Deon said. “This is real. We may get full funding or nothing.”
The General Assembly’s two-year session is expected to conclude today or tomorrow.
A 38 percent fare increase would bump a $1.30 SEPTA token to $1.80 and the cash fare from $2 to $2.75 and “exceed the bounds of what has been done in the industry,” SEPTA revenue director John McGee told the board.
“A real loss of riders” would be the result, he added.
Facing its grim task, some board appointees approached hard choices ahead with humor.
“Can you keep the popular weekend service… like those that go to Eagles games?” Bucks County appointee Charlie Martin asked SEPTA budget director Richard Burnfield.
But Burnfield declined to identify weekend routes SEPTA staff consider crucial.
“Last year, when we looked at keeping some routes and eliminating others, you really start pitting one group against each other,” Burnfield said.
The bipartisan $110 million plan offered by Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.) offers SEPTA only $36 million in relief by the end of its current fiscal year June 30.
“You got to take what you can get right now and keep working,” Evans said yesterday.
Some GOP leaders lamented yesterday that they met steep resistance when seeking votes to raise motor vehicle fees to support the Evans plan, because it offered nothing to rural legislators.
“They are just not going for it,” Rep. Rick Geist (R., Blair), chairman of the House Transportation Committee said.
“Watch me,” Evans said, asserting his plan is still viable. “I did not do this willy-nilly. I have done my homework.”
Evans proposes tinkering with the state Public Transportation Assistance Fund by raising car rental fees from $1 to $3, and beefing up tire surcharges from $2 to $4. He would also institute a $2 auto emission sticker fee and dedicate a $7 increase on the current $5 driver’s record fee to transit.
Kate Philips, Rendell’s press secretary, said the governor still believes Evans’ proposal is the best fix at this point and was reserving judgment on the GOP plan until more details were known.
“The governor generally is not inclined to rob Peter to pay Paul,” she said. “At the same time, he certainly wants to work with the legislature to find a compromise to help solve this crisis.”