HARRISBURG – Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R-41) issued the following statement today highlighting Senate Republicans’ support for a strong and robust transportation network across all regions of Pennsylvania:
“In August, Senate Republicans passed substantial funding for transportation investments, using existing, and unused taxpayer dollars, coming from the Public Transportation Trust Fund (PTTF). There is value in supporting both road projects and transit, and we took a significant step to unleash those dollars to help all 67 counties across Pennsylvania. At that time, our commonsense solution was rejected by Democrats and Governor Shapiro in an effort to score cheap political points.
“We have been consistent in recognizing the value of transit while making it clear investments by taxpayers need to include reasonable accountability measures. State taxpayers already invest more than $1.5 billion every year for mass transit programs statewide and until our members exposed the massive $2.4 billion in unused funds sitting in the PTTF, those resources remained in the couch cushions of the PennDOT bureaucracy. It was not until our transparency efforts shed light on the massive fund balance that the Governor’s hand was forced to finally make these resources available for their intended use. I am glad the Governor continues to take our advice and use existing resources to support public transit. It’s unfortunate that just one year ago, he took $153 million of funding from critical infrastructure projects to fund transit, neglecting the needs of those who use our roadways every single day.”
CONTACT: Kate Flessner