PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — With 20 days to go until SEPTA imposes deep service cuts, Democrats from Philadelphia’s state House delegation are calling on Republican Senate leaders to return to Harrisburg and pass mass transit funding.
“This is not a crisis of our creation,” said Rep. Jordan Harris, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, at a news conference in front of Lincoln High School in Mayfair Monday. “We have passed mass transit funding on four separate occasions to fund SEPTA.”
More than a month after Pennsylvania’s July 1 budget deadline, the GOP-controlled Senate hasn’t acted. “We are far past the time that this budget was supposed to be passed,” said Rep. Mary Isaacson. “The Senate went home, and we haven't seen them since.”
SEPTA has promised to begin eliminating and shortening bus routes on Aug. 24, without state funding to help it fill a $213 million budget shortfall.
The news conference was held in the district of Republican state Sen. Joe Picozzi.
“Senator Picozzi, I am begging you to publicly call on your leadership to take action,” said Democratic state Rep. Ben Waxman. “Call on your leadership to force a vote. Because if we don’t, the consequences are going to be devastating.”
Picozzi, in a statement to KYW Newsradio, didn’t respond directly to Waxman’s request, but Picozzi said he’d introduced legislation to make SEPTA accountable for the funding it receives.
“This legislation is laying the groundwork for a bipartisan deal to deliver the necessary funding for our public transit system,” Picozzi said. “Bottom line: I’m fighting to save SEPTA through both funding and increased safety and accountability.”
Accountability is fine, said Democratic state Rep. Morgan Cephas, but Picozzi’s bill, she said, doesn’t have funding attached.
“If transparency is something that you want, we are absolutely at the table to deliver that. But we also need the funding in order to talk about transparency,” she said.