In order to keep its bus and van services intact as the state Legislature continues its budget stalemate, the Lehigh Valley’s transit agency requested permission to tap funds allocated for capital projects.

LANTA Executive Director Owen O’Neil told the Lehigh Valley Transportation Study Technical and Coordinating committees on Wednesday morning that he’s still waiting to hear back from the state a month after the request was submitted Sept. 15.

“Our biggest outstanding issue right now is that we are still waiting to get a determination on that,” O’Neil said during the virtual meeting. “We did receive a letter from them acknowledging that they got it and understanding the situation. That was, I believe, two weeks ago, and with the acknowledgement that they are hoping to make a determination in the very near future.”

LANTA needs about $11 million to maintain service, which includes $8 million for the bus system and $3 million for shared ride services.

In September, SEPTA and Pittsburgh Rapid Transit both received permission from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration to tap funds allocated for capital projects for operating expenses instead, to preserve service with fare increases. SEPTA needed $394 million to keep services up in the Philadelphia area.

O’Neil hopes to get an update soon.

“We are into a fiscal year where we are in a projected deficit situation,” he said. “We are also being very careful with our cash position, and doing what we have to to keep the lights on, but also making sure that we kind of keep enough cash in hand to pay certain bills and things like that.”

In May, LANTA released a draft budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which started July 1, that doesn’t include any extra money from the state. It instead included a 20% service cut, a 25% fare increase on fixed routes and a 25% fare increase on shared ride services for seniors. Any cuts would begin in January.

The 2026 LANTA budget includes an operating cost of $66.8 million, a $2.8 million increase from 2025. Government subsidies make up a lot of that money, including $9.5 million from the federal government, $36.8 million from the state and $1.4 million from local governments.

O’Neil said he is getting a bit nervous as the state budget stalemate is past 100 days and that employees that process LANTA invoices may be furloughed. The federal shutdown, which started two weeks ago, could also affect funding, O’Neil said, as LANTA is transitioning to another grant that requires processing before it can draw from it.

“It’s a little bit of a tenuous situation,” O’Neil said. “We’re always trying to keep an eye on everything, and hopefully we’ll hear about that stabilization request from PennDOT very soon.”

Lehigh Valley Planning Commission Executive Director Becky Bradley said her agency has yet to receive a state reimbursement that accounts for about 60% of its 2025 budget. However, the LVPC is still functioning from its reserve fund.

“This is a time unlike any other time that I’ve seen in my 25-year career as a professional planner, working in community economic development in particular, and transportation and the like,” she said.

Jim Mosca, from PennDOT’s central office, said that with no budget in place the transportation agency has no contract authority.

“The funding is there, but the authorization to spend the funding is not there. Same thing on the federal side,” he said, adding that PennDOT has paid invoices on projects completed by June 30, but none after that.

“We’ll get them ready, but they’re not going to get paid at this point, once they get through to our comptroller and treasury,” Mosca said.

Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.

Originally Published: October 15, 2025 at 3:34 PM EDT