A boy can dream, so picture this: It’s August 23 and a press conference is called at the 69th Street Transportation Center: Governor Shapiro to Announce New Dedicated Funding for SEPTA. The Philadelphia House Delegation is there, side by side with Republicans Rep. Martina White and Senator Joe Picozzi. There’s Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman. (Whose speech on the Senate floor this week spurred a vitriolic response that can be seen as a window into why Democrats have lost the rural vote. More on that later).

OMG, are we modeling this thing that was once called common ground for the nation? There’s SEPTA’s top brass — alongside advocates with placards and posters. Normally dour-faced members of the media are even cracking smiles.

SEPTA is saved! Crisis averted! Again, our Governor has saved the day!

       Listen to the audio edition here:

Thanks to his leadership, every speaker will say, a deal with Republicans has been reached. Together, the parties issued bonds against heretofore unknown funding streams. (Maybe SEPTA even kicked in $50 million from its $400 million “stabilization fund,” which former SEPTA CEO Leslie Richards used to refer to as a “rainy day fund.”)

You cannot wait for the bridge to collapse to ride to the rescue.

There appears to be a non-zero chance that any of this dream becomes reality. Yet even if it does, we would be unwise to celebrate this holding of serve, lest we ignore the troubling signals sent by these last months of our SEPTA drama, which, despite his best efforts, have raised questions about our Governor’s ability to problem-solve and our Mayor’s willingness to exert influence statewide.

There has been plenty of ink scrawled blaming Republican Senate leaders Pittman and Kim Ward, often justifiably so. But isn’t that, I don’t know, a bit too … easy? Southeastern pundits seem to pine for a Senator who is a lifelong resident of Indiana County to be SEPTA’s savior, but how about looking inward a bit and recognizing the ways in which Democrats have failed to get us to “yes”?

Rallying … where it barely counts

How is it, after all, that a Governor with unparalleled political skill who formerly represented Montgomery County (SEPTA ground zero!) and a legislative caucus from Philadelphia and the surrounding counties that numbers in the dozens … could not get us to a deal?

That would have required Dems giving Pittman something that he wanted in return. That was the point of the Senator’s speech this week — complete with an uncomfortably-long verbatim homage to John Mellencamp’s Small Town — that The Inquirer derided as “rambling” and characterized as fueled by resentment. Well, you watch it and you decide.

Sounds to me like someone who recognizes transit’s value to the state, but who also bristles at Democrats’ preference for playing the blame game. Last week we saw a Shapiro presser at SEPTA’s Market Street headquarters, the governor surrounded by House Dems and union leaders. The previous week, there was an appearance by House Dems at a Northeast Philly school, where they singled out for protest Republican Senator Joe Picozzi, who actually supports more transit funding.

In what world are Philly press events going to help persuade Senate Republicans to make a deal? Maybe the Dems should have gone to Indiana County to demonstrate they truly want to understand what their fellow Pennsylvanians need? Instead, we got a lot of preaching to the choir these last weeks, and the already converted ate it up. But how about the harder work of actually convincing someone in rural PA that funding SEPTA is in their self-interest?

Here we are, after all, on the cusp of welcoming the world next year to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. We should be at ribbon cuttings for new transit infrastructure, not fighting to save SEPTA from a death spiral.

It’s not like this is a new issue; we’ve known for years that this impasse was coming. Hell, Governor Shapiro already heroically came to Frankford Terminal on November 22, 2024 and instituted “flex” funding to forestall this eventuality. So where was he on November 23, 2024? Was he in Joe Pittman’s office, trying to hammer out a long term solution? Pittman, mind you, is no Jim Jordan. If the Governor can’t work with Pittman, how is a President Shapiro going to work with, say, Senator John Thune in the nation’s capitol, let alone with America’s allies and adversaries?

You cannot wait for the bridge to collapse to ride to the rescue. Governors, like presidents, also need to be able to stop crises from occurring in the first place.

Whither Cherelle Parker?

Which brings us to our Mayor. Yes, the fate of SEPTA is primarily a state funding issue. But try telling that to your constituent, Madam Mayor, who may now be two hours late to work everyday — if she retains her job at all. What happens to your people in your city is your responsibility, if only because it will be felt by them as such. So have you seen Mayor Cherelle Parker up in Harrisburg, banging on doors?

Remember, one of Parker’s big selling points in the 2023 campaign was that she’d demonstrated during her time in Harrisburg that she could work across the aisle. Former Republican House Speaker Mike Turzai had been a staunch ally. Why not use those relationships to help make Republicans in the Senate understand why SEPTA is so vital? And Council? Crickets, besides fundraising emails “demanding” Republicans fund SEPTA.

For too long, we have seen Philadelphia leaders dodge accountability by blaming Republicans in Harrisburg or in Central / Western PA: Over the horizon, out of sight, easy targets. They weren’t always wrong, mind you, particularly as the MAGA wing has gained in power on that side of the aisle. But they were partaking in strategy, not problem-solving.

Sure, I could have done without Pittman’s sneering “And now you come to me” whining this week, but here’s what leaders of stature do: They don’t attack so much as keep their eyes on the prize. Rather than call Republican leaders, as Senator Vince Hughes did, “boils on the butt of progress” (“I don’t even know what that means” Pittman deadpanned in response), condemn such incivility — as you do when it comes from Trump. And then grit your teeth and model cooperation.

Here we are, after all, on the cusp of welcoming the world next year to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. We should be at ribbon cuttings for new transit infrastructure, not fighting to save SEPTA from a death spiral. That we’re mired in the latter doesn’t have to be. Make better choices, children.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated Sen. Joe Pittman’s position in the senate. He is Senate Majority Leader.

OUR MOST RECENT COVERAGE OF THE SEPTA DEBACLE