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A new report issued by the Pennsylvania Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) underscores the state’s unmet transportation funding needs, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Despite $2.5 billion in additional revenue from legislation enacted in 2007 and the infusion of $1 billion last year from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, transportation remains critically under-funded in Pennsylvania, the report states. TAC recommends an additional $3.5 billion annually to maintain state and local highway and bridge systems, and public transit infrastructure.

Additional funding would keep public transit systems in a state of good repair and help expand several systems, as well as eliminate freight bottlenecks and improve transportation safety, TAC officials believe.

“New sources of revenue need to be identified and existing sources need to be reexamined to provide funding that meets the enormous investment need,” said Louis Schultz Jr., who chairs TAC’s Transportation Funding Task Force, in a prepared statement. “Pennsylvania must shift away from outmoded methods of generating transportation revenue and toward methods that are more predictable, equitable and in sync with inflation.”