A local state senator wants funds intended for highway and bridge improvement projects that were diverted to fund the state police to return to their original purpose at a faster rate.

State Sen. Joe Pittman, R-41st, will soon introduce legislation to reduce the amount of funding diverted from essential transportation projects to support state police operations.

Pittman's legislation, if successful, would halve the time frame for reducing the diversion of money from the Motor License Fund to the state police.

The amount due to the state police would then be drawn from the general fund.

Since 2012-13, more than $4.25 billion meant for highway and bridge projects has been diverted to state police operations.

Included in the 2016-17 state budget was a schedule to slowly decrease the diversion to state police from $801 million to $500 million over a decade.

With eight years left in the plan to reduce the diversion to $500 million, Pittman wants to decrease that time frame to four years.

“The state police definitely provide an essential role in promoting highway safety, but the ultimate way to improve highway safety is to rebuild our deteriorating highways and bridges,” Pittman said. “My bill does not reduce funding for the state police, but rather shifts the source of the support to the general fund budget.”

Pittman said when the transportation bill was passed in 2013 with the goal of funding road projects, bridge repairs and public transit, motorists were promised a significant investment in improving deteriorating highways.

“We need to continue that promise and ensure tax dollars earmarked to maintain and improve our roads and bridges are used for that purpose,” Pittman said. “My legislation will move us in that direction more expeditiously.”

He added that the state's transportation plan could be affected by a potential decrease in federal funding caused by the insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund and by a reduction in state funds if the vehicle sales tax transfer is repealed and payments from the state Turnpike Commission are reduced.

“This means we must act now to protect funding for transportation projects,” Pittman said. “The potential loss of state and federal funding would have a severely detrimental impact on PennDOT's efforts to rebuild our crumbling roads and bridges.”