Return to all Resources
Investing in Transportation: A Benchmarking Study of Transportation Funding and Policy
A benchmarking study of transportation funding and policy in Pennsylvania and similar states.
(
Pennsylvania Economy League
, October 2006).
The report’s primary recommendations are:
- Regionalism should play a greater role in transportation policy decision-making and funding. Pennsylvania’s state leadership and transportation officials should reconsider the regional role in transportation decision-making and funding, including granting greater responsibility for regional transportation decision-making, and permitting regions to explore alternative financing mechanisms and regional taxing authority to address unique regional needs. However, regional funding should supplement – not replace – the state’s ongoing role in providing baseline transportation funding.
- Prudent use of debt should be considered among the ways to finance long-term infrastructure projects. Such projects could include major road reconstruction, capacity enhancement, capital projects and investments in public transit infrastructure. However, any increase in bonded indebtedness should be accompanied by a clearly-defined revenue stream dedicated to retiring the debt.
- Public-private partnerships of all kinds should be explored and considered as part of the solution. Though not the only option for public-private partnerships, long-term leases are the most publicly-debated; any revenues coming from a long-term lease of Pennsylvania infrastructure should be dedicated to transportation projects.
- Future revenue sources should be dedicated, predictable and inflation-sensitive. Any solution to the transportation funding crisis should include a dedicated, predictable funding stream (or streams) able to grow with rates of inflation within the transportation industry. Solutions that do not provide for future growth are stopgap measures and future decision-makers would face another financial crisis in the near future.
View PDF
|
EMAIL
PRINT
