Rendell Repeats Call For More Transportation Funding

Pa. Governor Ed Rendell stood beneath an aging railroad bridge in Swarthmore on Tuesday afternoon, to repeat his pitch for the legislature to increase transportation funding. 

KYW's Mike DeNardo reports with the 115-year-old Crum Creek Viaduct as a backdrop for this stop on his statewide tour, Governor Rendell once again urged the legislature to reconvene this summer and find ways to come up with the $472 million a year that disappeared when the feds said "no" to putting tolls on Interstate 80.

Rendell acknowledged that with five months left in, there's not much he can do:

"Well, I don't have leverage.  And that's why I'm going on this tour.  It's up to the people of Pennsylvania.  To the leaders, to the business leaders and the union leaders.  It's up to them to create the leverage."

Rendell favors increasing license fees and hiking the gas tax to pay for transportation projects.

He says putting-off action until a new governor takes office is only going to delay the construction cycle and make it even more expensive to maintain the state's roads, bridges, and mass transit systems.

(Photos by KYW's Mike DeNardo)