Pa. lawmakers expect backlash over support of $2.3 billion transportation plan

Pennsylvania lawmakers who voted to raise billions in fees and gas taxes will have some explaining to do to conservative groups that keep close watch over tax votes in the Legislature.Lawmakers who flipped to support the $2.3 three billion plan are already being targeted by an anti-tax and limited government group based in Harrisburg.

Rep. Stan Saylor, R-York, is among the members being singled out. He’s already expecting a primary challenge in next year’s election.

“I know I’m going to be primaried, I’m going to get a general election, but like I said, people hate politicians that do, quote-unquote the politically easy things,” he said Friday. “And that’s not going to help me one way or another telling people that, but it’s just, it’s reality. And I gotta know that.”

Another York County Republican, Seth Grove, said he’s not worried about defending his eleventh-hour change of heart to support the multibillion-dollar plan.

He held out long enough to be assured the state’s prevailing wage law would be changed to let smaller public works projects pay lower wages, a move to help local governments afford more projects.

Grove says the change is something he’s wanted for years, and now, he can campaign on helping make it happen.