COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE BUDGET HEARING DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION STATE CAPITOL HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA ROOM 140, MAJORITY CAUCUS ROOM WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2017 3:00 P.M. BEFORE: HONORABLE STANLEY SAYLOR, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE JOSEPH MARKOSEK, MINORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE KAREN BOBACK HONORABLE JIM CHRISTIANA HONORABLE SHERYL DELOZIER HONORABLE GEORGE DUNBAR HONORABLE GARTH EVERETT HONORABLE KEITH GREINER HONORABLE SETH GROVE HONORABLE MARCIA HAHN HONORABLE SUE HELM HONORABLE WARREN KAMPF HONORABLE FRED KELLER HONORABLE JERRY KNOWLES HONORABLE NICK MICCARELLI HONORABLE JASON ORTITAY HONORABLE MIKE PEIFER HONORABLE JEFF PYLE HONORABLE MARGUERITE QUINN HONORABLE BRAD ROAE HONORABLE JAMIE SANTORA HONORABLE CURT SONNEY HONORABLE KEVIN BOYLE HONORABLE TIM BRIGGS HONORABLE DONNA BULLOCK HONORABLE MARY JO DALEY HONORABLE MADELEINE DEAN HONORABLE MARIA DONATUCCI HONORABLE MARTY FLYNN HONORABLE EDWARD GAINEY 2 1 (CONT'D.) 2 HONORABLE PATTY KIM HONORABLE STEPHEN KINSEY 3 HONORABLE LEANNE KRUEGER-BRANEKY HONORABLE MIKE O'BRIEN 4 HONORABLE MARK ROZZI HONORABLE PETER SCHWEYER 5 6 MAJORITY NON-COMMITTEE MEMBERS: 7 HONORABLE DARYL METCALFE HONORABLE CRIS DUSH 8 HONORABLE KRISTIN PHILLIPS-HILL HONORABLE TOMMY SANKEY 9 HONORABLE JEFF WHEELAND HONORABLE BRETT MILLER 10 HONORABLE ERIC NELSON HONORABLE BOB GODSHALL 11 HONORABLE CRAIG STAATS HONORABLE TOM MURT 12 HONORABLE ROB KAUFFMAN HONORABLE ED NEILSON 13 HONORABLE KATE HARPER HONORABLE JOHN TAYLOR 14 MINORITY NON-COMMITTEE MEMBERS: 15 HONORABLE ISABELLA FITZGERALD 16 HONORABLE MARK LONGIETTI HONORABLE DAN FRANKEL 17 HONORABLE MORGAN CEPHAS HONORABLE MATT BRADFORD 18 HONORABLE JASON DAWKINS HONORABLE JOHN GALLOWAY 19 HONORABLE MIKE SCHLOSSBERG HONORABLE BILL KELLER 20 HONORABLE PERRY WARREN 21 COMMITTEE STAFF: 22 DAVID DONLEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (R) RITCHIE LAFAVER, DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (R) 23 MIRIAM FOX, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (D) TARA TREES, CHIEF COUNSEL (D) 24 25 TRACY L. MARKLE, COURT REPORTER/NOTARY PUBLIC 3 1 INDEX TO TESTIFIERS 2 NAME PAGE 3 LESLIE RICHARDS, SECRETARY 4 DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 4 DAVID MARGOLIS, DIRECTOR 66 5 BUREAU OF FISCAL MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 ---oOo--- 2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: Madam 3 Secretary, I'm going to ask you -- and Dave, if 4 you are going to testify, as well, if you would 5 rise and raise your right hand. 6 (THE TESTIFIERS WERE DULY SWORN.) 7 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: Thank you. 8 I'm going to turn it over to Chairman Markosek 9 to start with any comments. 10 MINORITY CHAIRMAN MARKOSEK: Thank you, 11 Chairman. Just a couple of short comments: I 12 just wanted to chat about one item and get it 13 started. I'm sure it will come up anyway. 14 First of all, you know, you're lucky 15 this year. I guess your salt budget is in 16 pretty good shape this year, right? 17 MS. RICHARDS: Actually, if you have 30 18 seconds -- and I promised Chairman Saylor I 19 would answer everything as fairly and as quickly 20 as possible. 21 But as a surprise to a lot of people, 22 we're actually over our five-year average, as 23 far as cost this winter. While we've had a nice 24 and mild winter here in the Harrisburg area, as 25 well as southeastern Pennsylvania, I know those 5 1 of you from Erie and central and northern 2 Pennsylvania, we've had a tough winter. 3 Lake Erie did not freeze this year. 4 We've had lake-effect snows. And, of course, we 5 had multiple snow events happen on weekends, 6 which costs overtime. So we're slightly over 7 the five-year average as far as costs, but we're 8 slightly under the five-year -- a little under 9 the five-year on salt, so we are good on salt. 10 MINORITY CHAIRMAN MARKOSEK: Okay. I 11 might as well get into, you know, one of the 12 800-pound gorillas here, and that's with the 13 Motor License Fund relative to the State Police. 14 And I know the Governor has made a proposal, one 15 that I've been for or, you know, a strategy that 16 I think is only fair to try to put some 17 additional money into the State Police so that 18 we don't have to continue taking money out of 19 the Motor License Fund for that purpose. 20 I know I have a community -- my 21 hometown, Monroeville, we spend about $12 22 million a year on our local police and, you 23 know, it's taxpayers like myself that have to 24 not only pay for that, but also pay for the 25 State Police coverage in about two-thirds of the 6 1 land mass of our Commonwealth. So I just really 2 wanted to throw it out to you to get some 3 comments about that, whether that -- how you 4 feel about that particular proposal in the 5 Governor's budget and what, if anything, else 6 you are looking at to take care of the Motor 7 License Fund in such a way that, you know, we 8 would have either additional funds coming into 9 it or that we would be less dependent or the 10 State Police would be less dependent on it, and 11 any kind of strategies you have for that. 12 We raised significant revenues a few 13 years ago with Act 89. They go into the Motor 14 License Fund. And we have Act 44 still in 15 place, which raises significant revenue; but we 16 certainly need to do something to make sure that 17 the Motor License Fund is secure for 18 transportation needs. 19 MS. RICHARDS: Uh-huh. Sure. Thank 20 you, Chairman. Happy to talk about that. As I 21 have before when I've come before this important 22 body, as well as others, first of all and 23 foremost, PennDOT believes the State Police 24 provide a very important public safety function, 25 and in no way do we want to impact them in any 7 1 way that is not positive. We know that everyone 2 in the Commonwealth depends on the State Police, 3 and so we want to make sure that they can do 4 what they need to do. But we also have, you 5 know -- we have a core function here at PennDOT, 6 and that is to make sure that our transportation 7 networks are as safe as possible, as efficient 8 as possible, and that people have the mobility 9 choices that they need here for the economy to 10 function, as well as all the transportation 11 needs. 12 So what has been proposed in the 13 Governor's budget, which is the $25 per capita 14 fee for those who are receiving law enforcement 15 only through the State Police, anything that 16 keeps the State Police with a dedicated line 17 item so that they can function forward, we would 18 be interested in helping come up with ideas. 19 We did have our Technical Advisory 20 Committee, our TAC Committee, look at a variety 21 of ideas. Again, none of those ideas were 22 presented to give the idea and solve the problem 23 solely, but to add to a good, productive, 24 meaningful conversation so people understood all 25 the different options and that we're all on the 8 1 same page to get dedicated funding so that the 2 State Police can provide the function that they 3 need to. 4 I'm a former local elected official. 5 One quarter of my budget was our law 6 enforcement. And if I had been offered free law 7 enforcement, I would have taken it. And so I do 8 think there is a big incentive for that, and so 9 we need to take a look, and again, make sure 10 that people are getting the law enforcement that 11 they need, making sure that their constituents 12 and that their residents are safe, and that the 13 police and State Police can do it. And PennDOT, 14 again, stands next to the State Police in full 15 support of that. 16 MINORITY CHAIRMAN MARKOSEK: Okay. 17 Thank you. 18 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: I did want to 19 recognize that we were joined by Representative 20 Michael Schlossberg. Michael, welcome. Madam 21 Secretary, I didn't give you a chance to make 22 any opening statement. If you want, you may do 23 that now. 24 MS. RICHARDS: I'm happy to continue 25 answering questions. I know there's a lot of 9 1 questions here. And if there's anything anyone 2 else wants me to discuss, I'm happy to at the 3 end. 4 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: Very good. 5 The first thing from me, and the only thing 6 really from me at this point, I join with the 7 Chairman with the concern over the draining of 8 our highway fund by the State Police being taken 9 out of there. I have some legislation that 10 changes that a little bit, but we'll talk about 11 that in the future. 12 One of the concerns I've had as being 13 past president of the Municipal Planning 14 Organization in York County is -- and we've had 15 some discussions with some people at PennDOT, 16 has been the issue -- we just had a discussion 17 about this a few weeks ago -- a major accident 18 on the bridge coming into Harrisburg of 83 and 19 581 there.