Evan Goldin | No more tunnel vision

It's spring in Philadelphia.

Locust Walk is one big puddle. Van Pelt Library fills back up to full capacity. And, most years, SEPTA starts panhandling for money in Harrisburg, Washington and anywhere else it can scrape up some change.

Year after year, the future of greater Philadelphia's transit system is left up the air.

This year, SEPTA is on the prowl for $130 million to cover its gaping budget deficit.

Philadelphia's public transportation infrastructure is one of its greatest assets - to build such a system now (and some cities are doing just that) would cost billions upon billions of dollars.

But with insufficient funds to cover the cost of its operations, SEPTA regularly plans for draconian service cuts and hefty fare increases. And this cycle of budget cuts and bailouts is dooming Philadelphia's future.

A shaky public-transit system scares off potential entrepreneurs, who worry that employees may suddenly be unable to get to work. And the young, bright professionals - the ones modern metropolises salivate over - want to live in cities where they don't have to take a cab home after bars close (ever seen the Adams Morgan Metro stop at 2:30 a.m. on a Saturday?).

Like so much in Philly, the potential of local transportation to be an asset to this city has been stymied by a lack of political will and popular support. As it stands, only two of SEPTA's 15 board seats are appointed by city officials, though most of the ridership occurs here.

The board isn't "interested in making dramatic improvements, they're just there to maintain. So SEPTA limps along from crisis to crisis," former Bucks County SEPTA representative Andrew Warren told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

But a permanent base of support (and funding) for SEPTA - needed so desperately for so, so long - may finally be on the horizon.

Philly's suburbs are getting crowded, and the sprawling development taking over open space is increasing commute times. Taking cues from other regions, greater Philadelphia is now waking up to the fact that a well-supported transit system is a regional resource, not just a municipal one.

And a key friend to SEPTA just may help get the ball rolling.

Former Philadelphia Mayor-turned-Governor Ed Rendell recently proposed a way to boost transit spending around the state, especially SEPTA: a 6.17 percent tax on gross oil profits. The tax offers one of the best chances in decades to jump start the creation of a stable funding source for transit.

And with some modicum of funding in place and friendly governors in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, SEPTA and local officials can pursue the ultimate solution for SEPTA's ills: a regional governmental organization to plan, coordinate and raise funds for transit.

In northern California, the state legislature created the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to oversee planning of and raise funds for transportation infrastructure. In most cases, it's worked wonders; the agency has a planned budget of $65 billion over the next 20 years.

And it could work wonders in Philadelphia too, where SEPTA doesn't even know its budget three months from now.

Imagine a single agency in control of SEPTA, local highways, the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the Walt Whitman and Ben Franklin bridges, PATCO and the Philadelphia Airport. It could leverage money from those sources with revenue from Rendell's oil tax and federal sources.

Finally equipped with proper, permanent funding, this agency could coordinate planning in the entire region, attract even more federal dollars, direct money where it is most needed - like fully funding SEPTA or continuing PATCO across the Schuylkill - and hand more control to Philadelphia itself, where most transit system use takes place.

It's so logical it might just work, even here.

Philadelphia doesn't expect to get power and money without sacrifice, however. The city owns the airport and will soon again own SEPTA's tunnels in Center City and West Philadelphia (the lease, currently held by SEPTA, is about to expire).

Those items, combined with the money-generating Parking Authority and Convention Center, make mighty good incentives to entice suburban governments to join forces with Philly.

And with a newly Democratic state House in Harrisburg and a new mayor in less than a year, forces haven't been aligned so strongly in SEPTA's favor in decades.

Evan Goldin is a College senior from Palo Alto, Calif. The Gold Standard appears on alternate Tuesdays. His e-mail address is goldin@dailypennsylvanian.com. Evan Goldin's column is part of "All Aboard," a special section on issues facing SEPTA.

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