9/29/04-Pennsylvania has a huge transportation funding gap that proposed federal legislation and even an 8-cent-a-gallon increase in the state’s fuel tax will not plug.
Allen Biehler, the state’s transportation secretary, delivered the bad news Sept. 27 at a meeting of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, the transportation planning agency for a 10-county region.
He pointed out the best funded of two proposed, six-year federal highway bills in the U.S. House and Senate would leave the state about $6.3 billion short of its $21.3 billion in needs for an adequate highway and bridge program, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
Biehler said the 8-cent fuel tax hike proposed last year, then shelved for political reasons, would not be enough to make up the difference.
The fuel tax proposal is expected to receive consideration at the Capitol in Harrisburg after the Nov. 2 election, possibly tied with legislation to increase assistance to more than 70 rural and urban transit systems.
Meanwhile, Biehler said the state highway agency is focusing on preserving the existing system of roads and bridges through preventive maintenance and taking initiatives to cut costs by such actions as eliminating unnecessary paperwork and delays.

2/24/04-Gov. Ed Rendell told a group of state transit officials Feb. 10 that any effort by the Legislature to fund transportation projects by raising the state fuel tax must include additional money for mass transit for him to support it.
Highway contractors and their partners are seeking as much as 8 cents per gallon in new fuel taxes to pay for improvements to Pennsylvania’s highways and bridges.
“If we are going to do a transportation initiative, you have my word it will include an initiative for public transportation as well,” Rendell told the Pennsylvania Public Transportation Association’s government affairs conference.
The governor’s 2004-2005 budget proposes a $9.3 million jump in state mass transit assistance for the next fiscal year.
The revenue generated would go toward mass transit operating costs, but leave at current levels funding for rail safety inspection, regional mass transit planning and rural transportation.