Harrisburg-when the largest state public transport system implemented stern cuts of services, and the governor of Josh Shapiro offered his support for part of the solution that helped at the end of the state budget dead, the best Republicans in the government of Pennsylvania were not in Capitol on Monday. Instead, they hosted fundraisers.
On Monday, in his Kapitol office, Shapiro told reporters that legislators were close to achieving the contract when the state budget reached the ninth week, and officials in the Philadelphia region called Harrisburg to act. Most importantly, the democratic governor expressed his readiness to finance the mass transport of the state using a special fund of $ 2.4 billion created to lend a hand the mass transport agency in the case of crises and capital projects – a fleeting solution proposed by Republicans to stop Sept cuts.
But the main supporter of this plan, the leader of the majority of Senate Joe Pittman (R., Indiana), on Monday he was outside the office, when he was hosted by the fundraiser to clay in his district in Armstrong, where participants could spend 125 to 10,000 USD to participate in the Pittman event.
Pittman is the best negotiator during closed budget talks With the leader of the majority of the house Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery), who was away from Capitol on Monday, he participated in meetings in Harrisburg.
All three spent weeks working behind closed doors to negotiate a state budget agreement, as well as a potential independent termination of mass transit.
In recent weeks, Pittman hosted a few Monday fundraisers, including the Golf Tournament on August 11, which was the same week septa required the confidence in the financing of the state before he officially implemented his cuts.
»Read more: The debate for financing SEPTA digs out a rural division for many years
“I was forced to run there and back [Pittman] And leader Bradford, and I do everything in my power to fill the differences between them and find a package that can go through the chamber and the Senate – Shapiro told reporters on Monday. “On my part I will stay at the table. I will continue to broadcast there and back … and find a common plane so that we can close it.”
Shapiro said he was open to the use of a special fund with over $ 2.4 billion in financing a capital project, called the Public Transport Fund. Until Monday, Shapiro seemed objected to using the fund, and his secretary Penndot told the Committee of the Chamber at the beginning of this month that “every dollar” in the fund “is expected”.
On Monday, he hit another melody and claimed that he had never opposed the use of PTTF money.
“I think that the utilize of PTTF as a part of a wider package is something we can do,” said Shapiro. “But it must be part of a wider package that focuses on the repetition of financing for a long time, which finances mass transit in each of our 67 poviats.”
»Read more: Is there actually $ 1 billion in the septa fund? Explanation of the Public Transport Fund.
Shapiro said that he only opposed the plan of the GOP Senate using PTTF, which also redirected $ 412 million from the capital budget of mass transit to roads and bridge repairs. House and Septa Democrats largely opposed the plan of the GOP Senate Senate at the beginning of this month, and the home committee quickly killed the Senate Act.
“I am open to the utilize of some PTTF as part of a wider package,” added Shapiro. “I was and I know that he understands this leadership.”
As the septa’s budget interviews, he will not receive a life line from Pennsylvania’s state government until the general budget agreement is reached. The state budget was to take place at the beginning of the new financial year, from July 1, but the talks stopped at misunderstandings about how to finance mass transit, including Medicaid expenses as well as taxation and regulation of so -called skill games.
The rhetoric around the Sept funds in Harrisburg has been nasty for months. But in recent weeks it has passed it because the issue of financing public transport of the state, including septa, is becoming more and more politicized.
SEPTA faces $ 213 million for the 2026 financial year, which began on July 1. As a result, the sixth transit agency in the country introduced a 20% reduction on Sunday and is to be introduced next week to implement a significant tariff growth.
»Read more: Mass septa cuts are here and “bad at so many levels”
On the GOP side, the best leaders perceive the agency cuts as a “produced crisis”, which could be avoided if the Democrats accepted their short -term mass transit financing plan, largely pulling money from the Public Transport Fund, which was created as a capital and rescue fund for mass state transport.
Meanwhile, democratic legislators perceive the GOP proposal in the use of capital funds to maintain mass transport agencies from making serious cuts or wandering for two years, because legislators achieve a contract for a long -term source of financing as a robber bills, and ultimately making transit infrastructure.
What’s more: some members of the GOP Senate say that the decision conducted by the Democratic SEPTA Council to implement the cuts of services at the beginning of the school year intentionally maximized chaos, trying to slander republicans or in a long -term perspective to try to overturn the state senate. And on the other side of the passage, some democratic leaders perceive the withdrawn transit debate as a purposeful GOP, trying to politically hurt Shapiro and Democrats when he undermines the re -election in 2026.
Pittman spokesman did not comment on his decision to organize a fundraiser, while Philadelphia and the region around the region deal with serious delays from new cuts implemented by Sept in the event of additional state financing.
Instead, Pittman said in a statement that the recent operation of the Senate aimed at adopting funding from mass transport using existing funds in the Public Transport Fund should be again considered to finance mass transit in the future.
“House Democrats, whose leadership comes from the Septa region, immediately rejected the plan. They should consider again,” said Pittman. “Negotiations are ongoing when we are working on achieving a consensus on the final budget product, which puts our community on a stable path of expenses for the next years.”
Spokesman Michael Straw, on behalf of the Senate Commission of the Republican Campaign, compared the collection of Pittman’s money on Monday to collect Shapiro last month, which took place on weekends.
“The events of obtaining the funds of our members have no different from recent events related to the acquisition of funds that Shapiro governor held in Nantucket and Avalon,” said Straw.
In addition to the collection of Pittman’s money, the House Republican Campaign Committee was to be completed by Central Pennsylvania Golf Tournament in Schuylkill, where participants could participate, bringing from 500 to 25,000 USD. The committee could not be contacted immediately to comment.
Other democrats, however, criticized the time of events related to the acquisition of GOP funds as the cuts of transit services were established.
At a press conference in Philadelphia City Hall on Monday, the president of the city council Kenyatta Johnson, a former state representative, said that the leading leaders of GOP in Harrisburg do not have an urgent need to prevent or withdraw sept cuts.
“For me, to do everything, except being in the table 24 hours a day, especially focusing on this problem, does not really show the seriousness they take when it comes to solving this problem,” added Johnson.
A representative of the state of Malcolm Kenyatta (D., Philadelphia), in a statement, criticized the fundraiser of GOP funds badly as “a blow in the damn face of every Pennsylvania.”
“Their decision to defend Mass Transit is a direct attack on our children, our families and our economy,” said Kenyatta. “Instead of appearing for work, they come out of golf and clay shooting, while the pension of remain orphaned.”
“They have fun while Rome is burning,” Kenyatta added.
Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.
