HARRISBURG, Pa. — Channel 11 has learned that hundreds of road projects and thousands of jobs are at risk all across Pennsylvania, as the state’s Secretary of Transportation is citing “irrevocable losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Democratic State Senator Lindsey Williams told Channel 11 she just discovered on Friday that PennDOT had requested a $600 million bond as part of the recently-passed budget, but that the money was left out of the Fiscal Code.
Without a solution, the projects could halt on Dec. 1, jeopardizing approximately 240,000 jobs, Williams said.
As of Monday morning, Williams said she had not received a clear explanation as to how this happened.
Monday afternoon, the Senate Transportation Committee hosted a public hearing on the matter.
Secretary Yassmin Gramian told lawmakers that “Pennsylvania’s transportation funding is in a state of emergency,” and urged them to act.
Republicans on both the House and Senate transportation committees accused Gramian of requesting the funds in the eleventh hour.
“Seems incomprehensible that no one blew the whistle and said ‘we’re going to need this money and we need it drastically’” said Representative Tim Hennessey. “For the House to hear about it three days before a budget is scheduled to be adopted... frankly it indicates to me that somebody seriously dropped the ball.”
“It feels like we’re being leveraged,” said Senator Kim Ward, adding “none of us want to see projects stopped in our districts, none of us want to see anybody be laid off.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agreed that the situation is dire.
“We have a giant problem on our hands that will materialize in a week and a day,” said Democrat Rep. Mike Carroll. “As much as I appreciate the desire to have an analysis of how we got to this point... I am hopeful that there can be leadership exhibited by all four caucuses that would result in the passage of a second fiscal code bill with one component included, and that is this bonding request from PennDOT.”
Channel 11 will keep you posted on whatever action is taken regarding this problem, as the clock keeps ticking.
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