Governor Ed Rendell, our Lord and Savior. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

This week could’ve been a nightmare: I woke up, peeked out the window, and immediately dreaded the eight block walk to campus. It’s cold as hell; that’s not so much the problem. The issue is that I’ve been slipping on the ice, way more than any sober person should. In fact, twice on a single block yesterday. But I haven’t had to make that trek everyday, thanks to the gorgeous gas-guzzling 42 bus.

Despite the transit-envy I feel when I visit other cities, foreign and domestic, I try to support SEPTA as often as possible, in talk and action.

But I’ve got some bad news (although I’m sure Philadelphians have come to expect it): SEPTA plans to increase fares “by at least 11 percent and perhaps as much as 31 percent,” according to an article in the Inquirer today. To make matters worse, service cuts and employee layoffs are also expected. This is a result of ever-lacking funding from the legislature, even though Governor Ed Rendell is sympathetic to SEPTA.

Some of you will remember the SEPTA strike last year, as well as Fast Eddie’s part in the resolution of that city-crippling event. It looks like the Governor might have yet another solution to SEPTA’s problems.

In his budget address last week, Rendell proposed the Oil Company Gross Profits Tax, which taxes the profits (recently, absurdly large profits) of oil companies at a rate of 6.17% on a “combined reporting basis.” This differs from the current Corporate Net Income Tax, which is at a rate of 9.9% yet allows for “creative accounting” on the part of oil companies. This “creative accounting” structures finances such that oil companies avoid paying taxes on most of their profits. With the new tax, the State would acquire an estimated $689 million more per year, which would be allocated towards transportation reform.

And it’s unlikely that Pennsylvanians will have their gas prices hiked in response — a provision in the bill apparently prohibits the companies from passing the burden to the consumer.

Yet this funding wouldn’t start until March 2008, too far off to tackle SEPTA’s current funding problem, according to the Inquirer. So unless someone develops a short-term solution, it looks like SEPTA passengers will have no choice but to cough up more cash and pray their bus or trolley route isn’t discontinued. I just hope the 42 bus and 34 trolley hang around — otherwise I’ll be busting my frozen ass from 36th to 45th street.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 16th, 2007 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.