APC’s Jason Wagner: governor’s budget favors transit but leaves highways and local roads short

Jason Wagner, director of government affairs for Pennsylvania Associated Constructors (APC), said the governor’s recent budget materials included measures for public transit but offered little for highway and bridge projects, leaving state transportation leaders "back to the drawing board" on how to fund those needs.

Wagner told hosts Charlie Greenewalt and Mara Ganley that transportation should be treated as multimodal — roads, bridges and public transit — and that past successful funding packages were bipartisan. He said Act 89, a prior landmark transportation funding law, is part of the context for current needs and that most legislators need re-education on that history because many were not in office when Act 89 passed.

A central point in Wagner's account was the longstanding diversion of motor-license-fund dollars to support general operations of the state police. He said the General Assembly has gradually reduced that transfer and that the governor proposed to flatline the transfer at $250,000,000 rather than phase it to zero. "That is roughly equivalent to about 5¢ of the gas tax," Wagner said; he argued moving state police funding out of the motor license fund would free money for road and bridge projects.

Wagner also identified construction inflation and fuel-efficiency trends as drivers of a decline in resurfacing capacity: hosts cited a roughly 41% drop in asphalt used for resurfacing and Wagner said inflation and fewer fuel-tax dollars mean each transportation dollar must be stretched further. He noted that federal infrastructure funds largely target large interstate projects and are ineligible for many 3- and 4-digit local roads, so state resources must cover those community needs.

As a short-term option, Wagner described a prior proposal (sponsored in last year's session by Sen. Judy Ward) to use short-term bonding to leverage roughly $600,000,000 in one- to two-year bond revenue as a temporary infusion for highway work; he acknowledged the approach is controversial.

Wagner said APC will pursue advocacy through the Keystone Funding Coalition — an alliance of highway, transit, aviation and local-government stakeholders — to educate legislators about a multimodal approach and to push policies such as workforce development, procurement reform and a "design-build best value" delivery method (a proposal previously associated with Chairman Struzzi).

Next steps: Wagner said APC and coalition partners will educate legislators and press for a multimodal funding package as the budget process unfolds.