Shrinking Democrat Base Root of Mass Transit Stand-Off
The stand-off over funding for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Regional Transit Authority (SEPTA), Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) and smaller public transportation agencies across Penn’s Woods has its roots in the shrinking, urban-centric base of the Democrat Party.
Democrat state lawmakers representing rural areas are on the verge of extinction. Over the decades the party’s base has steadily retreated into urban and, in some parts of the state, suburban areas. Following the 2020 census the Legislative Redistricting Commission produced a set of maps gerrymandered to maximize urban/suburban representation.
It worked.
As a result, Democrats eked out a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives creating both divided government and a body unrepresentative of the state’s geographic divide. House Democrats have subsequently spent more time passing messaging bills than in enacting meaningful legislation to move Pennsylvania forward.
Although not proficient in actually accomplishing anything, legislative Democrats have excelled at performance art. Highly inflammatory rhetoric frequently rises from the House floor as lawmakers hold forth on a variety of issues designed to show the voters back home that they are working hard for them.
The folks at SEPTA have taken their cue from their legislators. As bureaucracies are wont to do when they want more money they are set to cut the services most likely to inflame the public. Hence, routes that transport children to school or fans to Eagles games are first on the chopping block.
They and their legislative supporters have ginned up a fake emergency over funding. Senate Republicans did pass a bill giving SEPTA level funding while details of funding going forward remain part of the ongoing state budget deliberations. Rather than accept the stopgap measure House Democrats immediately rejected the bill preferring a service disruption stand-off to actually negotiating a solution.
Public transportation, of course, is highly concentrated in the state’s urban areas. Since urban areas are almost exclusively represented by Democrats it thus rightfully becomes as issue of top concern for lawmakers from those areas.
The problem is that baked into Democrat ideology is the theory that all problems can be solved by spending more money. Thus their solution to the SEPTA funding issue is simply more funding. Being captive of the labor unions they refuse to look at the unsustainable number of employees and excessive contracts that are the hallmark of both SEPTA and PRT. Amid declining ridership numbers there is no effort to consolidate or eliminate routes.
State government, however, currently has a structural budget deficit. Spending is increasing at a rate higher than projected increases in income. SEPTA, of course, is not the only piglet sucking at the teat of state government. The public education cabal, free medical care for able bodied recipients other so-called “human service” costs are also rising exponentially.
Taxpayers living in areas of Pennsylvania who will never set foot on a SEPTA bus or train are already subsidizing that service. Whether it is from state tax dollars or turnpike tolls SEPTA has their hands in many pockets. Non-urban taxpayers are balking at pouring even more money into those systems absent significant reform.
That part of the state is largely represented by Republicans who control the state Senate, thus setting up the conflict of interests. SEPTA was at one time able to bridge that divide because the collar counties outside of Philadelphia were Republican bastions. Montgomery, Delaware, Chester and Bucks counties sent Republican legislative delegations to Harrisburg. But that has changed with Democrats now holding a voter registration advantage in all but Bucks County, which last year flipped back to the GOP.
The urban legislative delegation also can no longer count on significant support from southwestern Pennsylvania where the counties surrounding Allegheny – home to Pittsburgh – have all turned ruby red. Thus there are few Republican senators and representatives for whom additional funding for mass transit is not only not a priority but whose constituents are saying we are already paying too much.
The end result is likely to be more funding for SEPTA, PRT and the smaller transit agencies because the inevitable gravitational force of government is higher spending. But, whatever final deal is reached the increase should be minimal and must include iron clad requirements for the implementation of operational efficiencies.
Pennsylvania is already running full tilt toward a fiscal cliff. Pouring more money into inefficient and politically corrupt mass transit agencies will only make jumping off that cliff happen more quickly.
(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly American Radio Journal and Lincoln Radio Journal. His e-mail address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.)
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