Rendell Warns Lawmakers to Act on Transportation

Gov. Ed Rendell has warned state lawmakers of disaster if they fail to dedicate additional dollars for Pennsylvania's highways, bridges and mass transit agencies by the end of the year.

In an address yesterday, he said lawmakers could adopt a short-term fix or find the billions it will take to fully repair and maintain the state's transportation infrastructure for decades to come. He called inaction ``unacceptable.'' Rendell said lawmakers could explore public-private partnerships, renew efforts to toll existing interstates, raise gas taxes or motorists' fees or get tougher on reckless or uninsured drivers. Rendell said the alternatives would help plug a hole in state transportation funding that was partly caused by federal regulators' decision last month to reject a plan to toll Interstate 80.