(The following article by Jere Downs was posted on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on March 15.)
PHILADELPHIA — SEPTA’s board of directors quietly decided last week to postpone action to raise fares or cut service until June 26.
Gov. Rendell recently plugged SEPTA’s $49 million budget gap with a surprise cache of federal highway funds. That stopped a fare increase from $2 to $3 and a 20 percent service cut. Rendell also pledged to buoy transit agencies statewide with $412 million in highway funds through 2006.
Unless there is agreement in the next few months between Rendell and the legislature on a permanent means of transit funding, SEPTA projects a $92 million deficit in fiscal 2006, which begins July 1. Staying action now gives SEPTA the option of raising fares later – at any amount up to $3 – without lengthy public hearings required by state law.
The lack of a permanent funding solution for mass transit “only postpones the agony,” SEPTA board vice chairman James Schwartzman said yesterday. “We want to leave all our options open. Who knows what will happen in Harrisburg?”