You think its bad for PAT now, it's about to get A LOT WORSE! (Pittsburgh: middle-class, income tax)

[greg42]

Originally Posted by bmantz65

They are in session for eight weeks and then go on summer recess?

Right. And it's called a "full-time" legislature....

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by Debbie1125

Well according to an article I read in this Sunday's Inquirer, the transportation funding issue won't even be discussed until AT LEAST the fall.

One item that won't see any action over the next eight weeks: Pennsylvania's transportation funding problem. Corbett said this year that the time wasn't right to tackle it, and legislative leaders last week said the issue would not come up until at least the fall.

Pa. legislators return with budget on their minds

I see DoNothing is getting his next excuse all lined up and ready to force feed to the public....

[captainmidnight]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

I see DoNothing is getting his next excuse all lined up and ready to force feed to the public....

The "fall" can be anywhere from September - December, so that is nice and vague.

I just remembered the Legislature takes another recess around October-November because it is an election year. Hah, wish I could have that many in one year at my job!

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I understand they want to do the main budget first (which is not necessarily a bad thing--transportation needs a separate solution), and Corbett has said he wants to see the results of the upcoming negotiations with the unions (which I also think is not necessarily a bad thing, to the extent he uses the results as a face-saving way out of this box).

So I didn't expect anything in the next eight weeks. However, "at least the fall" is a worrisome phrase--it has to be early fall at the latest to prevent the cuts. Of course they also need to prevent the cuts to avoid blowback during the elections, so hopefully they are thinking clearly.

I'm sorry I'm not as optimistic as you are that Gov DoNothing will tackle this, Brian....I seriously believe he's going to keep throwing up roadblocks and avoiding this issue for as long as possible because he knows there's only 2 ways out of this act on the recommendations of the Commission or willingly let the Transportation systems fail taking their respective city's economies down the crapper along with them.

Then when it comes time for re-election he'll try to pedal some garbage excuse in attempt to shift blame to unions and PAT management, etc....to what he hopes is a more than uneducated public....

The county needs to try in float some type of bond or take out a loan, do something to keep service levels as is until they can come up with a Perm solution.

[BrianTH]

Identifying a possible path out of the box is not the same thing as being confident that Corbett will actually follow that path.

Anyway, at least this is a good development: the top elected officials from Philly and PGH/Allegheny County are teaming up to lobby on this issue.

| TribLIVE | Pittsburgh

Also interesting:

Fitzgerald said he is in regular talks with the governor's office to try to thwart a 35-percent service cut in the Port Authority of Allegheny County's system set to occur in September. . . . Fitzgerald said a solution must include transit labor union concessions and a stable state funding stream. The contract with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85 expires June 30. Fitzgerald said he doesn't know if a solution will be found before then. He said the union proposed concessions valued between $15 million and $18 million last year to try to avert service cuts, but former County Executive Dan Onorato rejected them. Fitzgerald said concessions in a similar range are again on the table.

If this is going to be worked out in time--and please harken to the "if" at the beginning of this sentence--then something like this is how it will have to go down: behind closed doors Fitzgerald, Corbett, and the union agree on the basic terms of a deal, the union concessions are signed into the new contract by the end of June, and then Corbett authorizes his part of the deal, citing victory over the union.

[Goinback2011]

I've been riding the bus for about 5 weeks now. The last couple days are illustrative - busses scheduled for a certain time just don't arrive at all. The next scheduled bus is thus packed to the gills with angry passengers. One young woman this morning was threatening to sue PAT if she lost her job for being late.

I'm gonna try driving to the T station on the North Shore and parking. Does anyone know exactly where the parking is for this station?

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

Does anyone know exactly where the parking is for this station?

ALCO Parking Corp - Pittsburgh Parking

[Goinback2011]

Thanks Brianth.

[Debbie1125]

I was in Pittsburgh this past weekend and I was amazed at the amount of people waiting for busses on the downtown corners. This was on a Sunday. I also saw several go by and while they were not packed to the gills with people, there were not that many seats on some.

If this is what it's like on a light travel day such as Sunday, I would hate to see what it's like during the morning and evening rush hours.

I did have an opportunity to take the T (for the first time) in the downtown free zone. I was impressed with the cleanliness of the stations. Also the fact that classical music was playing. It's very relaxing while you're waiting for the next train.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

Thanks Brianth.

De nada!