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In state politics, the road to addressing big problems often seems to run through Philadelphia. That’s certainly true when it comes to mass transit, as Harrisburg wrestles with how to keep public transit systems operating months after Gov. Josh Shapiro diverted federal highway funds as a stopgap for Philly’s struggling transit agency.
But transit users in Pittsburgh and other communities have a stake in such debates as well — especially as Harrisburg officials ponder merging the issue with a long-running debate over so-called “skill games.”
Funding troubles for mass transit are nothing new, but they’ve gotten worse since the COVID pandemic cratered ridership. Laura Chu Wiens, executive director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit and member of the Transit for All PA coalition, says Pittsburgh Regional Transit has seen a 20% decline in transit service since 2019, and a 40% drop during the past two decades.
“We don't have enough service to serve the needs of our community members right now,” she said. “Youth, older adults, people with disabilities, low-income folks, immigrants — these are folks that rely on public transit to get around.”
She and other transit advocates hope Gov. Josh Shapiro will propose a lasting revenue stream for those agencies when he makes his yearly budget pitch on Feb 4. But even if he does, there are no guarantees: Last year he pushed for an increased sales tax allocation for public transit, 20% of which would’ve gone to PRT and two-thirds to SEPTA, with the remainder earmarked for smaller regional transit systems elsewhere in the state. The idea went nowhere.
An alternative approach, says state Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, (R-Indiana/Armstrong) is to link transit funding to casino-like skill games that can be found in bars, social clubs and smoke shops.
The legal status of those games has been disputed for years, with the result that the state lacks rules for regulating or taxing them, as it does other forms of gambling.
Some state lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Jay Costa of Pittsburgh, have tried to outlaw the machines in recent years. But others say legalizing and taxing them could generate an estimated $150 million yearly tax revenue.
Earmarking that money for transit may entice Democrats from more urban areas to back the full legalization of skill games, but critics of the approach say more rural residents stand to gain little.
Pittman says he may have a solution: a bill to regulate skill games that puts money into both public transit and transportation infrastructure to garner support from places that lack transit systems..
“There has to be some conversation about what benefits rural Pennsylvania,” Pittman told WESA. “That's where the infrastructure piece comes in.”
Some transit supporters say rural areas benefit from transit spending already.
“Every county in the Commonwealth gets transportation funding, whether you realize it or not,” said Philadelphia Democratic state Rep. Ed Neilson, who chairs the House Transportation committee. “It could be that ride-on-demand in Potter County that allows those seniors to go to the doctor and get their dialysis… all the way down through Indiana, who has their own system.”
But Republican state Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, the minority chair on Neilson’s committee, said that without some sort of infrastructure investment for their rural communities, “Members are going to struggle to vote” for a plan to designate revenue for transit. Even so, he said, he had reservations about relying on a revenue source that could fluctuate wildly.
“We need to put on our thinking hats,” he said. “What else can we be looking at?”
Some local transit advocates are pumping the brakes too. While Chu Wiens says there is a “pending transit-funding cliff” that must be addressed with state help, she said she’s not sure gambling revenue is the best source of support.
That’s partly because the revenue is hard to predict, but also because of fears that gambling often preys on lower-income people — including those who rely on transit — the most. Some state lawmakers, too, have worried that skill games, like slot machines, prey on low-income Pennsylvanians of color.
“It's important that these mechanisms are non-regressive so that they're not taxing low-income people,” Chu-Wiens said. She said she’d prefer solutions like “a per-ride tax on Ubers and Lyfts, mileage-based user fees or excise tax on vehicle delivery — a percentage of value on goods delivered from third parties like Amazon.”
“These have some natural relationship to road usage … or the kind of wear and tear on the roads,” she added.
On the other side of the ideological spectrum, the conservative Commonwealth Foundation also opposes tying public transit funding to so-called “sin taxes” like skill games or marijuana legalization. Its solution, however, relies on more funding from transit-heavy counties like Philadelphia and Allegheny, and imposing higher fares on riders (though it backs providing help to low-income passengers).
In any case, the state has already been arguing for years over how to tax and regulate skill games, Neilson said.
Slot machines at casinos are taxed at more than 50%, and their operators believe skill games should be taxed similarly. Supporters of skill games, meanwhile, back a friendlier 15% tax rate and argue the machines benefit the business owners that install them.
“We can talk about doing this, but we’ve seen lawsuits on these skill games going on for almost 10 years,” said Neilson, who is a former member of the House committee on gaming. “We need money for transportation tomorrow. We can't afford to have anything tied up in the court system.”
WESA reached out to gaming interests on both sides of that debate, but representatives of the casino and skill game industries either declined comment or did not respond.
Pittsburgh Regional Transit doesn’t have a public stance on the skill games proposal: “[PRT] will continue our commitment to work with the General Assembly on long-term, reliable, and sustainable funding solutions,” the agency said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing the funding conversation and being part of the solution.”
But that’s one bus that may be a long time coming.
