SEPTA is being saved with federal highway money

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday approved using $153 million in federal money earmarked for highway infrastructure projects in Pennsylvania to save SEPTA, delivering the lifeline Gov. Josh Shapiro promised last month.

Along with that money, SEPTA will receive $23 million in new money from Philadelphia and its four suburban counties for the transit agency’s immediate operational needs. Shapiro had asked local governments to contribute to the larger sum.

This move allows SEPTA to avoid – for just over six months – a potential “death spiral” of deep service cuts and massive fare increases due to a recurring budget deficit.

“This is a stopgap solution,” said Ariella Maron, executive director of the Planning Commission. State lawmakers must continue to “address the core issue of funding.”

Because of the pandemic and a resulting decline in ridership and rising costs, SEPTA faces a $240 million deficit in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Shapiro said he wanted to use the flexibility to buy time to find a more sustainable way to offer new state funding for transit agencies in negotiations with lawmakers.

As the federally designated metropolitan planning organization that sets priorities for all transportation projects in the region, DVRPC modified the state’s transportation improvement program to make the switch, which amounts to a form of public financing across the board.

The state Department of Transportation, at the governor’s request, proposed shifting $153 million earmarked for seven interstate projects across the state that have not yet begun construction or even been awarded contracts.

The Federal Highway Administration, which sent the money to the state, approved the maneuver, and the money will be transferred to a Federal Transportation Authority program that provides money for preventative maintenance to local transit agencies.

SEPTA could use that money to cover salaries and other costs associated with operations, officials said.

The flex option, rarely used on a large scale in Pennsylvania, has sparked anger among Republican lawmakers in Harrisburg and raised deeper questions about gaps in the way the state pays for both highway infrastructure projects and public transit needs .

“Simply not sustainable”

Delaware County Council member Christine A. Reuther said the county was happy to help with an increased contribution to SEPTA, but called it excessive. She noted that the council passed a budget this week with a 23% property tax increase, reflecting increased needs, including SEPTA, and stagnant property values.

“We cannot continue like this,” said Reuther, also a DVRPC commissioner.

“The way Pennsylvania requires counties to fund their government puts us in a position where we have no choice but to impose significant (property) tax increases,” she said. Delaware County is pushing for action on pending state legislation that would allow counties to impose a special tax or fee to cover transit or other needs, easing the burden on property owners.

“Putting this all on the property tax is simply not sustainable,” said Reuther.

Republican setback

SEPTA’s $153 million will come from seven different interstate infrastructure projects across the state, said state Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll: on I-79 in Mercer County; I-80 in Columbia County; I-95 in Philadelphia; I-83 in York County; two I-80 projects in Jefferson County; and I-70 in Washington County.

Republicans in the state Senate have blocked Shapiro’s proposal to raise $1.5 billion over five years for public transit by allocating more sales tax revenue to the Public Transportation Trust Fund. SEPTA, as the largest system, would receive about $161 million annually under this plan.

GOP leaders have called for a comprehensive package that would commit more money to roads and bridges and use revenue sources other than the sales tax. Shapiro has said he would be open to it, but nothing has been decided this year.

The state House of Representatives, which has a Democratic majority, has passed bills providing that money three times, but they have stalled in the Senate in part because of internal disagreements among Republicans who control the chamber over how to fund the money.