Pa. transit funding bill gets House’s final approval as budget divide deepens

HARRISBURG — The Democratic-controlled Pennsylvania House on Monday morning gave final approval to a transit and transportation funding bill that reflected a bogged-down and increasingly fractured process for seeking a budget that is now 42 days overdue.

The bill uses an increased transfer of state sales taxes into a special transportation fund that would generate $293 million in additional funding for mass transit. It also has money for road and bridge work and requirements for more scrutiny and accountability at Pittsburgh Regional Transit and the Philadelphia area’s SEPTA.

The bill passed on an 108 – 95 vote.

But it was not agreed to in the closed-door negotiations in which leaders of the Democratic-controlled House, the Republican-controlled Senate, and the Democratic administration