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Motion Expressing the Sense of Council of Allegheny County urging the Pennsylvania General Assembly to amend the Second Class County Port Authority Act to explicitly allow for the privatization of certain service areas or routes not currently served by the Port Authority of Allegheny County.
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WHEREAS, the Second Class County Port Authority Act, 55 P.S. §551 et. seq., vests the Port Authority of Allegheny County with the power and duty of maintaining, operating, owing and/or leasing a public transportation system within the County; and
WHEREAS, the Second Class County Port Authority Act does not explicitly allow for or prohibit private companies from providing public transportation services within the County; and
WHEREAS, the Port Authority of Allegheny County is currently in the midst of a well-publicized budgetary crisis; and
WHEREAS, the Port Authority of Allegheny County has announced plans to cut public transportation service hours by twenty to twenty five percent in June of 2007 as part of its plan for recovering from this crisis; and
WHEREAS, these service cuts, as amply demonstrated by public testimony and correspondence since they were announced, will have profound negative impacts upon segments of the population that are perhaps least able to cope with or afford them; and
WHEREAS, it may be possible to lessen these negative impacts by allowing private carriers to establish service in areas not served by the Port Authority;
NOW THEREFORE, IT IS MOVED, AND IT IS THE SENSE OF THE COUNCIL OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, that the General Assembly should, with all deliberate speed, consider amending the Second Class Port Authority Code to specifically authorize private carriers to own and operate public transportation systems in areas of Allegheny County or on routes not served by the Port Authority of Allegheny County.