Westmoreland Transit: State budget stalemate not hurting yet

With state funding for mass transit held hostage in the seven-week budget battle between Senate Republicans, House Democrats and the governor’s office, Westmoreland County’s bus system does not face the financial cliff looming for other transportation systems, a county transit official said.

“It has not impacted us. We have sufficient reserves,” for a few months of operations, said Alan Blahovec, executive director of the county transit authority.

Westmoreland County Transit is to receive $5.57 million in fixed-route operating funds from PennDOT for the current fiscal year, Blahovec said. Had the General Assembly passed Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget proposal to raise public transit funding, Westmoreland County Transit would have received an additional $1.16 million, Blahovec said.

“Our current monthly operating payments from PennDOT should not be affected by the budget impasse,” Blahovec said.

The Westmoreland County Transit Authority board approved a $17.9 million budget for the current fiscal year, which began July 1. Until a state budget is passed, the authority likely would get the same amount of money from the state that it received in the 2024-25 fiscal year, Blahovec said.

Ashley Seman, executive director of the Mid-Mon Valley Transit Authority, could not be reached for comment. Mid-Mon Valley Transit serves the Westmoreland County municipalities of Rostraver, Monessen, Smithton and North Belle Vernon, as well as ones in Fayette and Washington counties.

Pittsburgh Regional Transit faces a $100 million deficit that would trigger a 35% cut in service, with 40 bus routes eliminated and service cut on 50 of the system’s 98 routes, said Adam Brandolph, an authority spokesman.

“There’s yet to be a (budget) proposal to fill the budget deficit,” Brandolph said.

If the deficit is not resolved, those looming service cuts caused by the deficit could take place in February, Brandolph said.

The crisis over the mass transit funding in the state is due, in part, to officials of SEPTA, which serves the Philadelphia area, proclaiming drastic service cuts could be coming this month without a significant amount of state funding.

Democrats in the state House, who hold a slim majority in that chamber, rejected a proposed $47 billion budget bill and a $1.2 billion comprehensive transportation bill to fund mass transit and roads that Senate Republicans passed Tuesday.

The Republicans’ transportation bill would have provided new money at $600 million per year over the next two years — $292.5 million for mass transit this fiscal year and another $300 million the following year. The GOP budget would have tapped into a public transportation trust fund for the additional money for mass transit.

Erica Clayton Wright, a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, said the money in the public transportation trust fund could be distributed to provide sufficient funds for the capital projects for the mass transit systems.

But Brandolph, the PRT spokesman, noted PRT has some 80 bridges and a light rail transit system to maintain.

“It would have forced us to use money from the capital projects fund,” he said. “It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul.”