"Riley Factor"

This article was featured in the October 2006 issue of Business Matters, the Chamber's monthly print newsletter.

Transportation Funding and Reform Commission Issues Preliminary Report

A special commission formed by Governor Edward G. Rendell to examine the funding crisis facing Pennsylvania’s highway and transit systems has produced a report that highlights the statewide transportation funding dilemma and identifies a number of opportunities for improvement.

Of course, I found the entire report to be scintillating, but, hey, maybe that’s just me. So for this article, I wanted to highlight some of the ideas suggested for improving the funding situation for both public transit and our highway and bridges. 

Highlights:

The Commission identified a series of potential reforms to address transit funding needs, including:

• State funding to be used to maintain core existing system. Enable local funding options to pay for expansion.

• Establish and dedicate transit funding from sources that grow with inflation.

• Provide market-based performance incentives to transit agencies that improve efficiency of service in the core existing system.  For example, reward agencies that improve cost per trip or ridership growth.

• Create local taxing authority for transit.

• Streamline the existing funding structure, including match requirements and distribution formulas.

• Tie state funding to achieving specific performance results with state enforcement and local accountability.

• Use prudent bond financing for long-term capital needs.

• Explore public-private partnerships, sale/lease of assets and/or use of toll revenues.

The Commission also identified new opportunities for our highway and bridge systems, including:

• Right Sizing/Smart Transportation

·         Focus on the community context and apply “right-sizing” principles to deliver maximum cost-effective design.

·         Integrate land use considerations into transportation planning to increase life and utility of investment.

• Streamlined Project Delivery

·         Expand use of innovative contracting such as Design-Build/Best Value.

·         Revise management practices to accelerate construction.

·         Reduce pre-construction costs.

• Asset management

·         Focus on system preservation by making the right investment at the right time for roads and bridges.

·         Design bridges to last 100 years.

• Congestion Improvements – Reward regional approached to coordinating and interconnecting signalized intersections and corridors

• Public-Private Partnerships – Explore opportunities for public-private partnership such as management and sale or lease of assets.

All in all, many good, creative ideas that seem worthy of further exploration.

What’s Next?

The Commission has scheduled six listening sessions around the state to get public input on the preliminary report.  After the public input sessions are completed, the Commission will prepare the final report which is to be delivered to the Governor and the Legislature by November 15, 2006.

I will be attending one of the sessions to provide testimony on behalf of the Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce & Industry.  I plan to reiterate our long standing support for adequate funding for an efficient statewide transportation system. I will take this as an opportunity to continue advocating for our urgently needed local transportation projects including the Schuylkill Valley Metro and the 222 corridor project.

If you wish to view the entire report, it is available online at www.dot.state.pa.us/tfrc.