Rep. Jim Christiana (R-Beaver), in response to today’s address by the governor to the General Assembly regarding transportation funding issues facing Pennsylvania, issued the following statement:

“Pennsylvania’s pothole of transportation funding has become an ever-growing sinkhole.  

“Our Commonwealth has thousands of miles of roads in serious need of repair, yet while we currently devote more than $3 billion toward transportation funding, we face a funding shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars.

“We need responsible solutions - NOW. Unfortunately, Governor Rendell is, once again, calling on hard-working Pennsylvania families to bail him out. His futile second attempt to toll Interstate 80 was the final straw in creating our transportation funding mess.

“The governor cites increasing Pennsylvania’s gas tax, additional tolls, and borrowing more than $1 billion as ‘solutions’ to filling the transportation funding pit he has created through years of overspending, borrowing, and mismanagement. Tax, borrow and spend seem to be the governor’s solution to everything.

“What we must do is enact responsible measures such as eliminating the PA Turnpike Commission, handing over their responsibilities to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. This alone would go a long way in reducing the transportation funding shortfall.

 “And while I am happy the governor touted public-private partnerships (P3s) as a way to generate additional revenue for our roads and bridges, I believe we should use this same model for our public transportation entities, such as SEPTA and PAT.

“More than 25 percent of Pennsylvania’s transportation funding goes toward publically funded transportation, yet a mere one percent of our Commonwealth’s population actually utilizes mass transit. Let’s take a hard look at P3s in public transportation; a move that would create competition and substantially reduce the Commonwealth’s financial burden.

“We can’t keep going down this same dead-end road.  We need a responsible state budget that reduces wasteful spending in not only transportation, but in areas such as public welfare, which is proven to be littered with fraud.

“Please, for the taxpayers’ sake, let’s talk about reducing spending, not increasing taxes and more spending.”