TCI Welcomes Transportation Funding Report
HARRISBURG (November 13, 2006) – The Transportation Construction Industries coalition (TCI), the state’s leading advocate for the highway construction industry, today welcomed the final report of the Transportation Funding and Reform Commission and pledged to work with the Rendell administration and the General Assembly to solve the state’s highway and mass transit funding crisis.

“The commission has taken an important first step in putting the funding crisis in terms upon which everyone can agree,” said Robert Latham, executive vice president of Associated Pennsylvania Constructors (APC), a TCI member. “Clearly, it will take hard work and a large measure of courage on the part of all concerned to solve the funding challenges. We will do everything in our power to help build consensus.”

Latham said construction industry members were pleased that the commission’s recommendations included several recommendations identified in a recent Pennsylvania Economy League study, including the need for dedicated, predictable and inflation-sensitive funding sources, the exploration of public/private partnerships and regional participation in funding mass transit.

Latham noted that the commission’s recommendations address much-needed maintenance of highways and bridges as a first step, while leaving the door open for capacity enhancements as well.

“The fact is, our 50-year-old Interstate Highway System is not meeting our current capacity needs, let alone the needs of the future,” Latham said. “But the first step is to fix the existing infrastructure, and that was the commission’s focus.”

APC joined a broad-based coalition of business, land-use and environmental groups in commissioning and sponsoring the Economy League study. The others were 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, the Philadelphia CEO Council for Growth, the Allegheny Conference and the William Penn Foundation. PennDOT Secretary Allen Biehler made note of the study in his news conference.

“It appears that the Economy League study created a foundation for the commission, as we had hoped it would,” Latham said. “TCI is pleased to have the opportunity to work with Pennsylvania’s policy makers to address these issues and make this state a better place to live and work.”