Guv signs transportation bill

SPRING MILLS, Pa. - Gov. Corbett signed a bill yesterday that will pump billions of dollars into improvements to Pennsylvania's highways, bridges and mass-transit systems, a major achievement that could energize Corbett's 2014 re-election campaign.

Dozens of state and local officials looked on as the Republican signed the legislation in shivering temperatures at a ceremony in the parking lot of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Spring Mills. Later in the day, Corbett appeared at a similar event in Norristown and planned a third in Pittsburgh.

"There is barely a spot in Pennsylvania . . . that will not see an improvement because of this legislation," Corbett said.

Corbett praised lawmakers who approved the bill in bipartisan votes in both houses last week, contrasting the bill's enactment to the partisan gridlock in Congress that prompted a 16-day partial shutdown of the national government in October.

"Pennsylvania is a state that puts progress ahead of party," he said. "The men and women who stood for this bill understood that compromise is not surrender, but rather a path to success."

Corbett played down the increases in gas taxes and motorist fees that will be phased in over five years to generate at least $2.3 billion a year - an increase of about 40 percent from the $5.3 billion that the state Department of Transportation is scheduled to spend this year on highways, bridges and public transit.

Transportation Secretary Barry Schoch, who was traveling with the governor yesterday, said the combined increases, once they are fully in effect, amount to about $2.50 a week for a motorist who travels 12,000 miles a year. That assumes the proposed increase in the Oil Company Franchise Tax on wholesale gasoline is entirely passed on to consumers, he said.

The first fuel tax increase under the bill takes effect Jan. 1, according to PennDOT. The tax is imposed on the sale of fuel to gas station owners.

Corbett advocated a major increase in transportation funding, including an increase in the wholesale fuel tax, in his February budget address.