Luzerne County has yet to apply for money for a reduced-fee rural program.
Two bills that have passed the state House of Representatives and are under consideration in the Senate would provide funding for a reduced-fee rural transit program for disabled people in Luzerne County.
Luzerne is one of 16 counties that haven’t received state funding for such a program, according to the Pennsylvania Statewide Independent Living Council.
However, the county must apply for the funding, which it hasn’t done since the program was created in 2001. The Luzerne-Wyoming Counties Transportation Department, which supplies vans for rural transit, has had a shortage of part-time drivers in past years, said Doug Pape, its acting interim director.
“What the concern was in the past was that if we added trips in rural areas it would put strain on our existing system,” he said. He noted that the impediments to applying for the funding are being evaluated and corrected, such as hiring more drivers and reworking schedules, and that his department hopes to apply for the funding this fall.
House Bill 1590, the transportation bill, would provide $6.8 million for the program to be disbursed to any applying counties, state Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, said. House Bill 1286, the state budget bill, includes a $4.8 million line item for the same purpose, said Brian Grove, a spokesman for state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township.
The funding is administered through the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Last year, state Auditor General Jack Wagner asked PennDOT to make the program, known as Rural Transportation for Persons with Disabilities, available in the remaining counties.
State Rep. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke, said the funding was a key provision to get through the House, and he expected it to be passed in the Senate in at least one of the bills.
“I am very confident that, regardless if it’s the budget or the transportation bill, the funding is going to be there,” he said.
State Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, said she supports mass transit in the area but wanted to ensure the appropriations were “fair and equitable” and that roads and bridges receive funding as well.
Echoing part of Boback’s statement, Mundy said, “I want our county to get what any other county gets.”
