advertisement

---

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has unveiled a plan to inject about $2 billion of additional funding into the state's transportation system.

The proposal includes a 17 percent cut in the flat liquid fuels tax that consumers pay at gas pumps over two years, as well as a five-year phase out of the tax cap that oil and gas companies pay on the wholesale price of gasoline, Corbett administration officials said in a press release.

The additional investment, which Corbett announced earlier this week as part of his statewide budget address, would increase safety, drive business, create jobs and provide "reliable funding" for Pennsylvania's future transportation needs, they said.

Pennsylvania has faced a transportation funding shortfall due in part to inflation, reduced tax income as a result of more fuel-efficient vehicles and decades of underinvesting, Corbett administration officials said.

By the plan's fifth year of full implementation, the state would provide $250 million for transit; $200 million for locally owned roads and bridges; $80 million for a multi-modal fund to improve bicycle and pedestrian facilities, ports, airports and railways; $85 million for expansion projects on the Pennsylvania Turnpike; and $1.2 billion to improve Pennsylvania Department of Transportation-maintained roads and bridges.