SEPTA approves next year’s budget, but its financial future is contingent on state spending plan

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The SEPTA Board signed off on a new $1.74 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts on Monday, but it’s contingent on the state budget that is still being debated in Harrisburg.

“We’re not celebrating yet,” said SEPTA General Manager Leslie Richards. “We truly need the governor’s budget to pass at the levels that he has proposed for transit.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal provides an additional $161 million for SEPTA — and Richards said the transit agency needs it all. If legislators blow past the June 30 budget deadline, she said SEPTA can get by, but only for a while.

“If we’re talking a few days, a few weeks, we’ll be OK,” she said. “But if we’re talking months and definitely into next season, meaning the fall, we’re going to have to make some tough decisions.”

Those decisions would take the form of service cuts and fare increases.

“No matter how prepared you feel, no matter how much discussion is going on up to this point, it always seems to be this tangle of negotiations back and forth as the final days come, and we’re seeing that already,” Richards added.

For the second year in a row, the Pennsylvania Legislature will miss the constitutional deadline for the state budget . The Pennsylvania House has a voting session scheduled on Friday, but the state Senate will not be back until Monday.