The Commonwealth Financing Authority last week approved funding for 112 transportation projects in 36 counties. The awards totaled $59 million, and the money came from the Pennsylvania Multimodal Transportation Fund, which was created in Act 89 of 2013.

Unlike the fuel tax and license and registration revenue that flows into the Motor License Fund for building and maintaining highways, the multimodal program funds a variety of transportation-related, non-highway projects, such as streetscape, lighting, sidewalk enhancement, pedestrian safety, connectivity of transportation assets and transit-oriented development. It supports a comparatively tiny, yet vital piece of our comprehensive transportation system.

Many or most Coalition members are aware that a group of House members proposed to raid this fund – along with the PA Public Transportation Trust Fund – to balance this year’s General Fund budget, claiming (wrongly) that they were surplus funds that had not been committed to anything. Clearly that was not the case.
Governor Wolf has indicated he does not plan to raid these funds to balance the budget. We thank him and congratulate him for recognizing the importance of the projects supported by these special funds.

To see which projects were funded last week, along with those approved in earlier rounds of funding, click here. For more information about the multimodal program, click here.

Transportation Issue Update