Pennsylvania's Transportation Funding Advisory Commission Holds First Meeting On Monday

HARRISBURG (CBS) - Governor Corbett's newly-formed Transportation Funding Advisory Commission holds its first meeting today.

The Corbett administration indicated weeks ago that it would create a panel to study transportation issues. This commission, however, will not study the state's transportation needs as the administration says they are well-documented.

Instead it will be tasked with studying "innovative" ways of funding those needs. One difference, says PennDOT spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick is that while at first, the panel was supposed to report its findings by June, that deadline has been pushed back.

"After giving it some more thought, it was just felt that this review is so critical and so important that we're going to allow until August first for the commission to come back with a road map for the future," Kirkpatrick said.

Lawmakers and then-Governor Rendell crafted a transportation funding plan in 2007 that fell short when federal officials refused to approve the state's plan to toll Interstate 80.

Reported by Tony Romeo, KYW Newsradio