SGB members lead lobbying for bus funding

HARRISBURG, Pa. – College students are often accused of being politically apathetic, but… HARRISBURG, Pa. – College students are often accused of being politically apathetic, but nine Pitt students – including five Student Government Board members and the SGB president – helped break that stereotype when they traveled to Harrisburg Tuesday to meet with members of Pennsylvania’s state assembly.

Their mission: encourage their representatives to vote in favor of increasing, or at least maintaining, state funding for public transportation and higher education.

The trip was only the beginning of the “big things” many SGB members promised to do after being elected in April, according to Board member Todd Brandon Morris. He added that he hopes Pitt has a sustained voice in the capital now.

With the budget’s deadline quickly approaching, many state assembly members said it was a good time for students to lobby their representatives in the state congress. The assembly approved Governor Ed Rendell’s proposed budget earlier this year, which Rendell then vetoed and returned. Pitt student Sharon Paris and SGB member Jesse Horstmann said that, according to State Sen. John Pippy, R-Moon Township, Rendell expected the people of Pennsylvania to complain and agree to higher taxes when they saw the proposed types of budget cuts. No such thing happened, however, leaving the state government to push the budget to the deadline.

Rendell’s unusual strategy drew a response from assembly members.

“Anyone in political science knows that you don’t send a budget to a republican House and Senate and not mean it,” State Rep. Richard Geist, R-Altoona, said. “[Rendell] is like a Baptist minister – everywhere he goes people leave a believer.”

Geist said that, after 25 years in office, he has never seen a governor like Rendell.

If the assembly cannot pass a budget within the next week, their session will be prolonged.

The federal government gave Pennsylvania $900 million, and the assembly must also decide how that money will be distributed. Some state legislators want it to go to programs that suffered cuts – including public transportation – while others have new programs they would like to see funded.

SGB President Liz Culliton told a representative from State Sen. Jack Wagner’s, D-Pittsburgh, office that Pitt might have to increase tuition another 10 percent, after last year’s 14 percent increase.

After last year’s increase, State Sen. and Pitt trustee Jay Costa Jr., D-Pittsburgh, said he “rarely” heard from Pitt students about education spending. He added he had never seen a Pitt delegation in Harrisburg during his seven years in the capital.

“It’s as if the stuff that happens here doesn’t affect them,” he said.

Costa added that the recent push for gambling in Pennsylvania could help alleviate many of the money problems.

Pennsylvania is known for having a “brain drain,” with many young people getting their education within the state, then leaving for better jobs elsewhere.

With the cost of education rising, it is difficult for graduates to stay in the Commonwealth, where many cannot earn enough to pay back the student loans they took out, Morris said.

Between meetings, some students had the opportunity to see Rendell in a press conference in the Capitol’s entrance hall. According to him, Pennsylvania is ranked 47th out of 50 states for job creation – a situation that adds to the brain drain.

“The time to change is now,” he said. “Some say it’s too high a cost, but the cost of doing nothing is higher.”

Port Authority recently proposed fighting financial woes by stopping service for certain routes after 9 p.m. on weekdays and all day on Sundays. The service cuts could strand many Pitt students in Oakland, preventing them from exploring the city and keeping off-campus students from taking night classes or internships that end at 8:30 p.m. or later.

The proposed cuts sparked interest among many Pittsburgh students, who have flooded their representatives’ e-mail boxes with letters expressing their concern. The Democratic delegation representing the Pittsburgh area sent a letter to the governor about the spending cuts.

Pitt student Sharon Paris said cutting these routes would further impair the economy by preventing students from taking jobs in the city or other commercial areas outside of Oakland.

Geist, the transportation majority chair and self-proclaimed biggest mass transportation advocate in the House, said similar cuts in funding were taking place in Philadelphia. When asked if the cuts were as severe there, he explained that each department was allotted a certain amount of money, and that services could be cut as each chose.

One proposal on the floor recommends amending the Pennsylvania Constitution to allow more gas taxes to be used for public transportation.

State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Pittsburgh, said the amendment could not pass soon, because an amendment cannot pass without two congressional sessions and a statewide referendum.

Another option, provided by State Sen. Sean Logan’s, D-Monroeville, chief of staff, Kenneth Varhola, involves ending a cap on how much money from sales taxes can be diverted to public transportation. According to Varhola, 1.22 percent of Allegheny’s 7 percent sales tax goes toward mass transit. The total contribution, however, cannot exceed $75 million each year. If the cap was taken away, a few more million dollars could become available.

Some offices, including State Sen. Jim Ferlo’s, D-Pittsburgh, and Logan’s, also offered to help the students later in a Get Out the Vote campaign. They also offered discounted hotel rates for the next time a lobbying group travels to Harrisburg, to encourage students to get involved.

Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, whom Logan described to the students as their lobbyist, was also in the Capitol Tuesday.

Three board members, Brian Kelly, Scott Morley and Peter Stopp, did not attend because of personal reasons, according to Morris and Williams.