Transportation funding in Pennsylvania is slipping just when it should be increasing — and nobody in Harrisburg is doing more than talking about it.

As reported in a front-page article in the Butler Eagle last week, the State Department of Transportation recently updated its 12-year transportation plan to project $41.6 billion in spending, down 40 percent from the $67.9 billion spending plan in place four years ago. The article said roads will get worse with decreased funding. Experts say significantly more spending is needed to maintain the state’s roads and bridges.

In April, Auditor General Jack Wagner urged Gov. Tom Corbett and the Legislature to get behind a plan to address the state’s decaying roads and bridges.

It’s been over a year since Corbett’s own transportation advisory commission issued its report suggesting a variety of ways to increase spending on the state’s transportation infrastructure. The report warned that the state’s transportation deficit would soon grow to the point where unmet transportation needs would reach $7.2 billion within a decade if no action is taken.

One reason for the funding gap is that transportation work continues to grow more expensive even as the gasoline tax funding — at both the state and federal levels — declines. Today’s fuel-efficient cars get more miles per gallon and thus Americans drive more miles today than they did a decade ago, while using less gasoline and paying less in gasoline taxes. That’s good for reducing imported oil and for the environment, but it’s bad for highway funding.

The federal fuel tax has not increased since 1993, and the state’s fuel tax has been level for 15 years. Nobody likes to pay more taxes, but highways and bridges will continue to deteriorate without additional funding. It’s time for political leaders to face that fact — and take action.

The Keystone State’s challenges are tough because, with 40,500 miles of state roads and highways and about 25,000 bridges, Pennsylvania has more infrastructure to maintain than most other states. Pennsylvania ranks at or near the bottom for structurally deficient bridges and narrow rural roads.

Transportation infrastructure is critical to economic progress and competitiveness, to say nothing of public safety.

In June, the Harrisburg Patriot News wrote an editorial headlined “Transportation Funding: Lots of words, zero action.” The editorial featured quotes from elected officials on the importance of transportation funding.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati said, “The push for transportation dollars should have begun yesterday.”

Senate Appropriations Chairman Jake Corman said, “Not doing a transportation funding bill is not governing.”

Corbett said, “It is also critical that we address our transportation issues. . . . This issue has grown for the past several decades, and it will not be solved overnight.”

By ignoring his own commission’s common-sense proposals to raise revenues for transportation, Corbett’s lack of leadership on this issue is glaring.

Likewise, the state Legislature has failed to demonstrate leadership on the critical transportation-funding issue.

Both Harrisburg and Washington have failed to act responsibly to address deteriorating roads and bridges. There was some talk in Washington about an infrastructure bank, creating public-private partnerships for transportation, as is done in some other countries. The idea was featured in a few speeches by President Barack Obama, but never received much attention in Congress.

Corbett’s transportation funding commission released its recommendations in August 2011. So, with more than a year and no action, Corbett apparently decided to put the report on a shelf to gather dust, while the state’s roads and bridges fall into worse condition.

Leadership is needed on transportation and many other issues. But as the Patriot News commented, it’s mostly talk and no action from elected leaders — in Harrisburg and Washington.