Harrisburg – having only four days until the cutting of the Septa service does not come on Sunday, the decreasing hope that legislators from the divided legislator Pennsylvania will be able to achieve a contract to stop them.
The best legislative leaders and Governor Josh Shapiro remain in an impasse, how to finance mass transit – as well as in the general state budget, currently eight weeks after July 1.
»Read more: Everything we know about how septa can change on August 24
While leaders hope that they can reach a time of time to reverse the cuts – which come into force the day before The academic year begins In the case of the school district in Philadelphia, in which 52,000 students relied on sept for transit to and from school – Senate Republicans, Democrats House and Shapiro have not yet found a compromise on how to finance it.
Here’s what you need to know.
There is still a deep dispute regarding mass transit financing
House Democrats, GOP and Shapiro Senate are contrary to the plans to finance mass transit and stop Sept from limiting 20% of his service on Sunday. And there was no sign that anyone is moving.
Republicans of the Senate maintain that their plan, which would offer $ 1.2 billion within two years to mass transit agencies in Pennsylvania and rural roads and infrastructure of bridges, until the leaders are able to perform a repeated income stream, is the best solution.
»Read more: Is there actually $ 1 billion in the septa fund? Explanation of the Public Transport Fund.
According to GOP, the money would come mainly from the Public Transport Fund, which was created to act as a capital and rescue fund for state mass transport. A miniature additional part would come from interactive game revenues. Republican senators say that only $ 1.3 billion in PTTF are allocated for future projects, which means that there are over $ 1 billion, which increases by $ 400 million annually.
However, House Democrats – and also Septa, whose management is maintained mainly by Democrats – claim that the plan of the GOP Senate would invade the capital accounts of the mass transit agency intended for the maintenance of systems, they reversed some of the necessary funds from these projects to the repair and repair of bridges, and ultimately it would make public transport in Pennsylvania less safe and sound.
Democrats believe that their plan to boost their participation in the Mass Transit in sales tax by 1.75 percentage points from the current share of 4.4% to 6.15%, initially distributed by Shapiro as part of his annual budget proposal, would give septa, which he needs: dedicated, dedicated, dedicated, Repeated source of income. The leaders of the GOP Senate have rejected this option – despite the fact that Democrats Democrats in the last three years – at every step, fearing that increasing the share of transit in sales tax would ultimately require a tax boost down to the line or reduction of another public good.
And within a week, since the legislators from both chambers were the last in Harrisburg, they dug only heels, escalating attacks of the GOP Senate, which claim that Democrats “produce crisis”, while Democrats accuse Republicans of trying to remove mass transit and intentionally hurting the Philadelphia region, which is. The largest state economic engine.
»Read more: The debate for financing SEPTA digs out a rural division for many years
Legislators in the Chamber and Senate remain on a 24-hour conversation, which means that they must be ready to return to Harrisburg with a one-day notification. However, this call is unlikely to happen before Sunday. From Wednesday, no chamber had a return to September, weeks after the sept transit cutting into force, and a few days after 21.5% tariff growth will start on September 1.
The best GOP senators say they have already sent democrats with the best offer
The most essential leaders of the GOP Senate said within a week of adopting the Act on mass transit – which was immediately killed last Wednesday by the home commission – that the Act on House 257 was their best and final offer.
The Senate did not restrain to adopt an independent draft act on mass transport, preferring to negotiate it under the final budget agreement. But, as the leaders said, urgency in south -eastern Pennsylvania to avoid deep septa cuts and tariffs, motivated them to transfer a separate mass transit financing account.
President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland), in Wednesday’s interview, said that the only way in which the Senate sees the mass transport of mass transport before Sunday is that the house will again put up the Senate’s proposals and sends them back to the chamber with a compromise that will not raise taxes.
“We stand like a wall, protecting all Pennsylvania’s wallets,” said Ward.
Beth Rementer, a spokeswoman for Democrat House, said in a statement that legislators are “extremely concerned” with approaching cuts and continue working with all parties to achieve the solution to “the crisis that the Republicans of the Senate recognize.”
“Our latest bill on mass transport, fully finances septa and all our transit systems, introduces measures and invests in roads and bridges-using the available resources and without lifting taxes,” added Rementer in relation to the act adopted by the house last week, which covered Gopa niłanów. “Republicans of the Senate must do their work and get to a real plan that does not devote security to service.”
SEPTA needed funds by August 14
Septa said that he must receive state financing – or at least his promise – until August 14 to prevent planned cuts of services. It didn’t happen.
The General Director of SEPTA SCOTT Sauer testified before the House Rule Committee last week, that the reductions of services and tariff increases will come into force in accordance with the lack of additional state financing.
“We will continue these cuts as planned,” Sauer said then.
“We have to wait for a proposal that is both direct and balanced,” Sauer added. “Two years are not a balanced solution we were counting on. We need something that will take us to the future.”
SEPTA designs an operational deficit of $ 213 million, which the highest officials attribute chronic underfunding, pandemic declines and expenses.
If the financing solution is provided with SEPTA after Sunday, officials said that the reversal of cuts and resumption of normal service will last at least 10 days.
Shapiro would have to find a magical solution himself
Both among the supporters of public transport and the legislator that Shapiro remains some hope that Shapiro will have an emergency lever, as he did in November 2024, when he died $ 153 million in federal funds on the highway as a “stop” to prevent reducing services.
But the bending of federal funds is likely It is no longer an option under the administration of President Donald Trump, which would have to approve such action and would not have little motivation to assist the city led by Democrats.
It is not clear what another Shapiro option may have to apply your executive rights to block cuts before entering into force.
Ward said that she thinks that Shapiro already has a solution that he could benefit, without any legislative consent: Public Transport Trustery Fund, which is ultimately as part of the governor’s office.
Shapiro, for his part, said at a press conference on Tuesday that he remained at the negotiating table to try to connect the Democrats and the Republican Senate to try to stop the episodes, citing tens of thousands of students in Philadelphia who rely on Sept to get to classes.
He added, however, that the obligation remains in two chambers to achieve a contract and send him an invoice.
“Now there is a moment when both sides have to make difficult choices,” said Shapiro. “The compromise is difficult, especially in the polarized environment in which we find ourselves. They must make difficult choices and remember that this is not only a political game here in Harrisburg.”
