House rules committee rejects bill that would shift $750 million from transit capital to operations

The Pennsylvania House Rules Committee on Thursday voted 15–18 to defeat HB 257 (printer's number 2211), an omnibus transportation bill that would have allowed roughly $750,000,000 in Public Transportation Trust Fund (PTTF) capital to be moved into operating funds over two years.

Representative Topper, chair of the House Rules Committee, opened the meeting by asking committee members to consider the bill and invited PennDOT officials and SEPTA staff to brief the panel. PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll told members the measure would convert capital funding to operating aid "to the tune of about $750,000,000 over 2 years." He warned that shifting capital dollars to operating "creates a huge problem" for capital projects across the commonwealth and "does not solve the operating challenges," it only postpones them.

Deputy Secretary Meredith Bajika described match changes in the bill, saying, "So the bill specifically says that for PRT and SEPTA, should they choose to transfer capital to operating, they would then be subject to a 20% match. Currently, their match is 15%. That 5% increase…