Tom Shepstone
Natural Gas NOW
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A report from Pennsylvania’s Auditor General shows why giving severance tax money to Tom Wolf would simply further subsidize Philadelphia buses and trains.
Every year Governor Tom Wolf tells his Pennsylvania constituents he needs a severance tax on natural gas. He says he needs it for one thing one year and another thing the nest year. This years he says he wants $4.5 billion of severance tax money to “reinvest” in infrastructure, among other things. Big spenders always talk about investing other people’s money, of course. But, a new report from Pennsylvania State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale indicates has had the money all along. He’s just been wasting it on pet projects.
The Auditor General’s report says this (emphasis added):
Transfers from the Motor License Fund to the Pennsylvania State Police have caused PennDOT to fall behind on its planned use of Act 89 of 2013 funds to improve highways and bridges. Act 44 of 2007 funds transferred from PennDOT have helped transit agencies, but they also have resulted in the PA Turnpike Commission amassing billions of dollars of debt.
Pennsylvania government, in other words, stole the money intended for roads and bridges to use in funding the State Police and transit agencies. The focus of those who support Tom Wolf, of course, will be on the transfers of money to the State Police, as this agency is a necessity and easy to justify. But, compare these two charts from the report:
Notice the monies diverted to the Pennsylvania State Police over the five years examined grew by roughly $218 million or 37%. That’s substantial and about 5% per year. But, it’s the four years between 2013-2014 and 2016-2017 that matter because that’s the period for which the Auditor General’s report offers equivalent data on other diversions of funds to public transportation projects (see second chart above).
Now, we see our Pennsylvania government diverted $180 million from the Turnpike Commission to the State Police and another $170 million to the Public Transportation Trust Fund over the same for-year period. The latter amounts to a 40% increase. This is hugely important because the Public Transportation Trust Fund has huge other sources of taxpayer funding as the following chart demonstrates:
We see from this data that the Public Transportation Trust Fund has increased its total appropriations by $487 million or 53% and its cash receipts by $343 million or 42%. The subsidies for buses and trains are a far bigger burden on the Pennsylvania taxpayer than our State Police. And, we’re driving our Turnpike Commission into bankruptcy by using it as a piggybank for these mass transit subsidies and Elon Musk’s latest corporatist scheme of a hyperloop tunnel between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Where’s this money really going? Well, this chart in the Auditor General’s report says it all:
Yes, two-thirds of the mass transit money, including stolen Turnpike Commission funds, is going to the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), that is to say to Philly, for its its buses and trains. This is money that should be going ““solely for construction, reconstruction, maintenance and repair of and safety on public highways and bridges” across the Commonwealth according to the law. This is the real outrage.
Making the outrage even worse is the fact the Motor License Fund has been growing nicely over the four years:
The Fund has grown by $1.1 billions in fact, or 31%. That would be enough to fix our roads and bridges without raiding the Turnpike Commission if we weren’t wasting the money for mass transit subsidies to give to Philadelphia voters who should be paying far more than they do. Tom Wolf wants even more money to throw at them, of course, without addressing the real problems with our transportation funding system. That’s why he wants a severance tax; to avoid touching the billions of dollars the Commonwealth has been wasting on Philly buses and trains.
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