Pennsylvania's budget is now 40 days late.

Inaction in Harrisburg will cause catastrophic cuts to mass transit services across the Commonwealth if a funding solution is not authorized by August 14th.

SEPTA needs funding to be authorized by August 14th to avoid disastrous service cuts that would begin on August 24th. These service cuts will hamper SEPTA’s ability to get the population of Southeastern Pennsylvania to work and school, with the cuts coinciding with the start of the school year for the School District of Philadelphia.

The loss of these critical transit services will push taxpayers to relocate to states with better transit services, resulting in a significant loss of wage tax revenue for the Commonwealth. The decrease in property values near transit services will reduce property tax revenue. SEPTA’s loss of ability to get customers to stores and restaurants will result in a decline of sales tax revenue. The total estimated loss in tax revenue for these cuts is $674 million annually, which will only contribute to the Commonwealth’s budget deficit. The funding required to keep SEPTA running is only $213 million, meaning that funding SEPTA will save the Commonwealth $461 million. The math is simple: SEPTA is a net positive for the economy of Pennsylvania, and letting these cuts happen would be fiscally irresponsible.

The people of Potter County, Tioga County, Union County, and others won't have their commute interrupted by SEPTA cuts. However, they will eventually feel the loss of tax revenue generated by SEPTA when it jeopardizes their state maintained roads and state police. They’ll also feel transit cuts in their home counties, as all 67 counties in Pennsylvania are served by fixed-route public transit agencies, all of which are facing economic hardship. Your constituents ride mass transit and benefit from the economic activity that it generates.

Once these cuts happen, the effects will be hard to reverse. Riders will either relocate or find alternative transportation options, such as driving. When this happens, it will make it hard for SEPTA to restore service with the same levels of ridership. It will also lead to sharply increased congestion on our roads, driving up commute times and maintenance costs.

SEPTA’s newly appointed General Manager, Scott Sauer, has been working with Republican lawmakers to lower crime and fare evasion on the system. Now, there is legislation that funds mass transit across the Commonwealth while creating additional accountability for SEPTA so that taxpayers can be confident that their money is being used wisely. These pieces of legislation (SB 952, 953, 954, and HB 1788) represent a compromise between what each side of the aisle has been asking for. Now is the time to pass it.

I urge you: don’t wait until the 11th hour passes to fund SEPTA.