Unfinished business

With shrugging shoulders and pointing fingers, the state legislature adjourned (or recessed, depending on what you read) their 2003-2004 legislative session early Sunday, leaving the mass transit funding crisis, among other important business, twisting in the wind.

Retiring more than a week before the must-end date of Nov. 30, the General Assembly's Republican leaders had refused to return to Harrisburg as of Tuesday morning, already seemingly suffering from a turkey-induced malaise. The reason? According to a report in the Nov. 22 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, GOPers feel Gov. Rendell broke a supposed promise to support their push for a 20 percent pay raise.

Rendell spoke candidly at press conference last Saturday night. "How could anybody go back to the people in the Philadelphia or Pittsburgh areas and say, 'We couldn't find money for mass transit, but we found $15 million for a pay raise,'" he said.

He's right. Such an action would be insulting to all Pennsylvanians, especially since state legislators will see their salaries jump 5.3 percent on Dec. 1 thanks to the generous "cost-of-living" increase that's been instituted annually since 1995.

With rank-and-file members slated to take home $69,648 a year and leaders pushing more than $100,000, Pennsylvania pols are the fourth-highest-paid in the nation. Some advocates argue more money is needed to attract politicians to Harrisburg.

What more could a public servant possibly want? We, the taxpayers, already subsidize their transportation with the largest allowance for leasing cars in the country. Though our state legislators are technically considered "full-time" workers, it could be argued that they're really only "part-time." Typically, state pols spend six months a year in Harrisburg, and they get an allowance for expenses while they're there.

Such squabbling is embarrassingly typical in the state capitol. In his 1997 book A Prayer for the City, Chestnut Hill author Buzz Bissinger wrote, "The process of budget negotiations in Harrisburg, the endless horse-trading and behind-the-back deals that the petty men who called themselves legislators mistook for power, was always exhausting ... "

Now, those who will be hurt the most by the deep cuts in the city's transit system -- the car-less working poor, the elderly and the disabled -- are subject to the whims of petty men seemingly determined to give Rendell such a hard time, if for no other reason than to make the governor look bad.

The hope bolstered by Rep. Dwight Evans' (D., Phila.) transit rescue proposal, a bipartisan effort that sought to raise $110 million through a series of auto-related fee hikes, quickly shattered last week as it became clear Republican leaders weren't interested in supporting it. Another Bissinger passage comes to mind: "Harrisburg was a miserable place, not only because the town was an ugly and crummy backwater but also because of the absolutely corrosive attitude that most legislators bore toward the city."

Like SEPTA, Rendell has had to draw up his own contingency plan, which involves deferring or scrapping road projects and transferring about $90 million in highway funds to close the budget gaps of state transit agencies. The plan, which takes money away from critical repair projects, only underscores the need for a long-term solution. The words "dedicated funding" should be seen on the lips of more state legislators.

While lawmakers kick back for the holidays, SEPTA is busy mailing hundreds of layoff notices to both management and union employees. The agency's board plans to meet next week to settle on a final course of action. SEPTA's current doomsday plan includes firing 1,400 workers, raising fares 25 percent by Jan. 1 and ending weekend service by Jan. 23.

Further service reduction would be the kiss of death to transit as we know it. Rep. Rosita Youngblood (D., Phila.) floated an interesting proposal last week to sell the naming rights of SEPTA stations, but even she realizes that such a measure would only bring a partial boon. In any case, mass transit systems should not have to go to such lengths because elected officials are engaged in a war of political posturing.

Here's to hoping against hope that some form of a legislative compromise will allow Rendell to avoid an irresponsible plan to remedy a situation that has become painfully too familiar.

Michael J. Mishak