Transportation funding, pension costs priorities for Pa. Senate leader

    Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate are poised to move on two issues that have long been at a standstill in the Legislature.

    Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi’s priorities line up pretty well with those of the governor right now.

    He says lawmakers will start off the new legislative session by working on a solution to the state’s pension crisis.

    “We will be ready in the first six months of 2013 to move forward with a package that will start to address the fact that our pension system is different in kind than the vast majority of private-sector employee pensions and try to bring the government pension system in line with the private sector,” he said.

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    Pileggi, R-Delaware, says the Senate is also keen on advancing the issue of funding commonwealth transportation projects.

    Republicans are working with a slimmer majority this year, which Pileggi says shouldn’t be a problem.

    Even if it were, transportation funding is likely to be a bipartisan issue.

    House and Senate lawmakers from both parties introduced transportation funding measures during the last legislative session — though none of them advanced.

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