Transportation needs won't be met

February 7, 2011

The Morning Call

Colby Itkowitz and Dan Hartzell

For the past decade or so, transportation advocates' have lobbied for increased funding by arguing that the nation's infrastructure hasn't been updated since President Dwight Eisenhower's administration championed construction of the Interstate Highway System in the mid-1950s.

Many of the nation's bridges and roads are in disrepair, and while advocates have long complained the systems are underfunded, they could at least count on a steady stream of revenue from gasoline taxes.

But those same advocates face a new reality this year as the priority in Washington and Pennsylvania — under new Republican leadership in the U.S. House and the governor's mansion — is to cut spending. And the money that pays for surface transportation — gasoline taxes — has come in so slowly that the gap between capital needs and what revenues are available to fulfill those needs is $137 billion.

While President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address last month touched on the need for road and bridge repairs, he also called on Congress to freeze discretionary spending. Where the president stands on transportation funding will become clearer when he unveils his proposed budget Feb. 14. But the uncertainty has left the states in limbo as the spring construction season looms.

What projects might be eliminated if funding is cut or frozen? "We can't say," said Michael Kaiser, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. "We need more information" about how much money will be coming from Harrisburg before making specific determinations.

In addition, two of the nation's most prominent transportation advocates are no longer in power — Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell left office and U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota lost his re-election bid — leaving no one to lead the charge for increased spending.

Little more than a year ago, Oberstar was pushing legislation that would provide $500 billion over six years for transportation, a nearly two-fold increase in federal spending for highways, bridges and mass transit. The conversation now has shifted as groups are being warned that transportation money won't be increased, and will likely be decreased. Oberstar's vision died with his departure.

"The tone is a little bit different," said Janet Kavinoky, director of transportation infrastructure at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "It's not 'tell us what we need,' it's 'we're going to have to fight for every penny.' You're going to have to look at taking what you get. From an advocate's standpoint, taking what we can get is not what we do."

In 2008, with the economic stimulus package, transportation advocates began seeing that their most successful marketing was to tie transportation spending to economic development and job growth. Now, with Republicans eager to cut spending, their goal will be to convince Congress that transportation investment is a job creator.

"It is very clear that whatever we do this year will not be nearly enough and we will have to revisit this in a couple years, but the fact that we have to actually stop thinking about this as a pork fest and think of it as critical investment for country's future is a good thing," said David Goldberg, spokesman for Transportation for America, a Washington, D.C-based coalition of transportation, housing, business, environmental, health, and development organizations.

But, he added, there is "deep angst" in the traditional transportation industry "because no one knows what comes next."

The state's Transportation Advisory Committee said last May that Pennsylvania is coming up short to the tune of $3.5 billion a year to maintain its current road and bridge system and to allow for $300 million to expand, PennDOT spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick said.

The state Department of Transportation expects to award $1.7 billion in contracts in 2011, down slightly from the $2.1 billion it awarded in 2010, Kirkpatrick said.

Without additional revenue, PennDOT — which hasn't seen an increase in federal transportation dollars in two years — will have a $1.7 million shortfall in its 20-year road, bridge and mass transit plan for Lehigh and Northampton counties.

Officials last week would not cite specific projects that might be eliminated or reduced without new funding.

"We don't know what the mix will be" between bridge and highway funding under the Corbett administration, said Joseph Gurinko, Lehigh Valley Planning Commission chief transportation planner.

On the campaign trail last year, then-candidate Tom Corbett told voters that transportation issues would rank near the top of his agenda as governor.

Corbett is moving ahead with those campaign promises, including a vow to convene a transportation panel to come up with new ways to fund the state's massive infrastructure needs, said Kevin Harley, the governor's spokesman. Corbett is expected to sketch out his full transportation agenda when he makes his first budget address to a joint session of the state House and Senate on March 8.

"Transportation is a big driver for the budget this year," Harley said. "Our funding priority will have to be maintenance and road and bridge construction."

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman John Rafferty, R-Montgomery said he's also working with House Transportation Committee Chairman Richard Geist, R-Blair, on legislation that would authorize the state to enter into public-private partnerships as a way to pay for road and bridge repairs, with the companies and the state sharing revenue from the projects, such as the construction of a new slip-ramp for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The bill specifically excludes any privatization of the Turnpike's management, Rafferty said.

Rafferty said he remains focused on maintaining the state's existing network of roads and bridges, but also envisions an expansion of the state's infrastructure in particularly busy areas, such as the Philadelphia suburbs or the booming Marcellus Shale drilling belt.

"If we have solid infrastructure, that's where we'll see [economic] growth," he said.

In 2008, Washington, D.C., attorney Jack Schenendorf, who served as vice chairman on a federally mandated surface transportation commission, told Congress that revenues need to be raised because the need for investment is so vast.

With freight and population expected to increase exponentially, Schenendorf said then that the United States had to invest at least $225 billion annually in maintaining and improving the nation's transportation modes.

Three years later, the need hasn't changed, Schenendorf said.

"Nothing has changed on the needs and what the right thing to do is," he said. "The right thing is to invest in transportation to get out of our long-term problems. The problem is coming up with the revenue to do it. Nobody should fool themselves that this is enough, it isn't enough."

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