Bill would make highway funds equitable
A Butler County state representative on Tuesday announced he will introduce legislation to make state highway funding more equitable for smaller municipalities.
Rep. R. Lee James, R-64th, in a memorandum to his state House of Representative colleagues, stated he intends to introduce a bill in the near future to make the state, rather than the locality, responsible for funding surface and subsurface drainage facilities on state highways in municipalities with fewer than 2,501 residents and fewer than 401 residents per highway mile.
Roughly 300 boroughs in Pennsylvania would benefit from the legislation, according to James, whose district in the northwest of Butler County includes the boroughs of Bruin, Cherry Valley and Eau Claire.
Under extant law, PennDOT maintains the surface and subsurface drainage facilities on state highways in townships, regardless of population. The same isn't true for boroughs, James wrote.
“When the State Highway Law was originally passed, townships were small and boroughs and towns were where people lived outside of cities,” James wrote in the memorandum. “In the more than 50 years since the State Highway Law was passed, the population distribution in Pennsylvania has changed dramatically. Boroughs have seen a decline in population over the years with people moving to townships or cities.”
Of the 23 boroughs in Butler County, 13 would be eligible for state funding for surface and subsurface drainage on Pennsylvania highways under James' proposal, according to census and PennDOT data, including all three Butler boroughs in James' district — Bruin, Cherry Valley and Eau Claire.
The other potentially eligible municipalities would be Callery, Connoquenessing, Fairview, Harrisville, Karns City, Petrolia, Portersville, Prospect, West Liberty and West Sunbury.
Ten county boroughs would be ineligible for such funding under the plan. Seven Fields, Slippery Rock Borough and Zelienople have populations in excess of 2,500, while Chicora, East Butler, Evans City, Harmony, Mars, Saxonburg and Valencia have fewer than 2,501 residents, but a population higher than 400 per linear mile of state road.
