PRINTER'S NO. 3061
No. 2211 Session of 1984
INTRODUCED BY TRELLO, POTT, STEVENS, PETRONE, DeLUCA, GRUPPO,
HALUSKA, BELFANTI, STEIGHNER, PRESTON, CIVERA, COLAFELLA,
JOHNSON, BELOFF, BOOK, TELEK AND VAN HORNE, MAY 30, 1984
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON FINANCE, MAY 30, 1984
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of January 22, 1968 (P.L.42, No.8), entitled,
2 as amended, "An act empowering and authorizing the Department
3 of Transportation to establish and administer certain grant
4 programs for the betterment of mass transportation systems
5 and facilities throughout the Commonwealth; providing for
6 State grants to transportation companies, municipalities,
7 counties, or their instrumentalities and to agencies and
8 instrumentalities of the Commonwealth for studies, research,
9 demonstration programs, promotion programs, purchase of
10 service projects, and capital improvement projects under
11 certain conditions; authorizing grants by counties or
12 municipalities in metropolitan areas to local transportation
13 organizations, authorizing the creation of a transportation
14 authority to function in each metropolitan area consisting of
15 any county of the first class and all nearby counties within
16 a radius of twenty miles of any such first class county, as a
17 body corporate and politic for the purpose of establishing an
18 integrated mass transportation system with all pertinent
19 powers including, but not limited to, leasing, acquiring,
20 owning, operating and maintaining a system for, or otherwise
21 providing for, the transportation of persons, authorizing the
22 borrowing of money and issuance of bonds therefor, conferring
23 the right of eminent domain on the authority; altering the
24 jurisdiction of the Public Utility Commission, authorizing
25 the acceptance of grants from Federal, State and local
26 governments, limiting actions against the authority and
27 exempting it from taxation, authorizing counties and
28 municipalities to enter into compacts for the financing of
29 each authority and to make appropriations in accordance with
30 such compacts, creating a citizen advisory committee,
31 conferring exclusive jurisdiction upon certain courts with
32 respect to matters relating to such authority, empowering
33 each authority to function outside of the metropolitan area
1 under certain terms and conditions," further providing for
2 grants for transportation.
3 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
4 hereby enacts as follows:
5 Section 1. The definition of "county transportation system"
6 in section 202 of the act of January 22, 1968 (P.L.42, No.8),
7 known as the Pennsylvania Urban Mass Transportation Law, added
8 July 10, 1980 (P.L.427, No.101), is amended and a definition is
9 added to read:
10 Section 202. Definitions.--The following terms, whenever
11 used or referred to in this article, shall have the following
12 meanings, except in those instances where the context clearly
13 indicates a different meaning:
14 * * *
15 "County transportation system" shall mean and include buses,
16 vans or other transit vehicles purchased, maintained and
17 operated by any county and used to provide free or reduced rate
18 transportation within the county to persons sixty-five years of
19 age or older and persons ages sixty to sixty-four who are
20 unemployed.
21 * * *
22 "Unemployed" shall mean persons eligible for unemployment
23 compensation benefits under the act of December 5, 1936 (2nd
24 Sp.Sess., 1937 P.L.2897, No.1), known as the Unemployment
25 Compensation Law, except that persons who were determined
26 ineligible because of pension offset provisions of the law shall
27 also be considered unemployed.
28 * * *
29 Section 2. Section 203(5)(i), (ii) and (iii) of the act,
30 added July 10, 1980 (P.L.427, No.101), are amended to read:
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1 Section 203. Program Authorizations.--The department is
2 hereby authorized, within the limitations hereinafter provided
3 and is required where the provisions of section 204 apply:
4 * * *
5 (5) To make grants from the State Lottery Fund to
6 transportation companies, county transportation systems and
7 local transportation organizations to pay estimated transit
8 losses resulting from providing:
9 (i) Free service or local common carrier mass transportation
10 systems to persons sixty-five years or older and persons sixty
11 to sixty-four years who are unemployed when such passage is on
12 fixed route public transportation services during nonpeak riding
13 hours and on holidays and weekends. The losses resulting from
14 granting service on mass transportation systems shall be
15 reimbursable at seventy-five percent of such system's average
16 fare multiplied by the number of trips made by senior citizens
17 participating in such free transit program. Transit systems that
18 currently receive a program reimbursement based upon a
19 percentage of average fare greater than seventy-five percent
20 shall receive their current amount of senior citizen program
21 reimbursement until such time as the amount of reimbursement for
22 these systems equals seventy-five percent of the average fare
23 times the number of senior citizens trips: Provided, however,
24 That reimbursement for the fiscal year 1980-1981 shall be
25 calculated using the average fares as of January 1, 1980.
26 (ii) Free or reduced fare on shared ride county
27 transportation systems for persons sixty-five years or older and
28 persons sixty to sixty-four years who are unemployed:
29 (A) In case of free service on such county systems, the
30 county shall be reimbursed at seventy-five percent of the cost
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1 incurred or to be incurred in operating and maintaining such
2 system, with the remainder of any such cost being paid by the
3 county.
4 (B) In case of reduced fare services on such county systems,
5 the county shall be reimbursed at the same rate and under the
6 same conditions as provided in subparagraph (iii).
7 (iii) Reduced fare services on local common carrier mass
8 transportation systems to persons sixty-five years of age or
9 older and persons sixty to sixty-four years who are unemployed
10 when such passage is on shared ride public or contract
11 transportation services during regular hours of operation. On
12 shared public transportation, losses are reimbursable only if
13 the elderly person pays 25¢ or twenty-five percent of the cost
14 of the individual fare, whichever is greater.
15 * * *
16 Section 3. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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