Pennsylvania Facing Transportation Funding Shortfall
Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Leslie Richards dropped a bit of a bombshell on the state’s transportation world when she announced that her department was facing a shortfall of at least $6 billion.
Richards, who took office in May 2015, testified before the state Senate Transportation Committee on Feb. 2 that while the previous administration had projected $34.9 million in funding over the state’s mandated 12-year plan (2015-2026), there was less than $29 billion. She has to update the plan in August as chairwoman of the 15-member Pennsylvania Transportation Commission.
“The [Tom] Corbett administration overpromised projects by at least $6 billion,” Richards testified. “Absent a legislative solution, a number of these projects may not advance in the next 12 years.”
No legislation has been proposed to address the shortfall, although there is discussion in the House to move at least some of the state police’s funding out of PennDOT’s budget, which would save up to $750 million per year.
Act 89, which passed in 2013, pumps additional money into PennDOT’s coffers each year as the cap on the oil franchise tax gradually is eliminated.
“There were a number of project lists floating around before Act 89 was adopted,” PennDOT spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick said. “After it was adopted, the lists weren’t reconciled with the available revenue. We can’t spend what we don’t have. Act 89 is allowing us to move forward with much-needed pavement and bridge preservation work.”
Pennsylvania has the nation’s fifth-largest state-maintained road system at just under 40,000 miles and the third-largest state-maintained bridge system with 25,000. Nearly 4,000 of those bridges are structurally deficient, down from more than 6,000 in 2008.
“We have a very daunting infrastructure challenge,” Kirkpatrick said of the state’s aging roads and bridges. “It’s a constant struggle to keep up. We’ve been trying to hold them together with resurfacing, but you eventually have to rebuild the base.”
Thanks to Act 89, Pennsylvania’s highways and bridges budget for the next fiscal year is $4.8 billion, 30% higher than in 2013.
“We’ve always been aware that the commonwealth has a substantial list of unmet transportation needs,” said Nolan Ritchie, the Senate Transportation Committee’s executive director. “To cite an actual number and to really bring light to it was what sort of surprised us.”
Eric Bugaile, Ritchie’s counterpart in the House, agreed that Richards delivered a wakeup call.
“It had some ripple effects with the committee,” Bugaile said. “We have the money to do what we have to right now. We’re talking about future years. It’s not like it’s gloom and doom tomorrow.”
