Pennsylvania has always matched industrial muscle with financial clout, and nowhere is that union clearer than in Pittsburgh, where steel mills rose alongside powerhouse financial institutions like Mellon and PNC.

Today the same dynamic is accelerating statewide and in my district. Surging global demand for LNG and coal, the explosion of energy-hungry data-center campuses, and renewed interest — both foreign and domestic — in legacy industries such as steel are all chasing reliable transport and logistics.

That convergence of capital and commerce proves that when private financing is aligned with public infrastructure goals, patient money will flow and prosperity will follow.

Under Article VIII, Section 7 of our state constitution, only debt backed by the General Fund counts as “Commonwealth debt.”

Bonds repaid strictly from tolls, freight fees or ticket sales stand outside that cap, which is exactly how the Pennsylvania Turnpike has operated for eight decades.

User-fee financing lets Pennsylvania raise 30-year money at municipal rates without touching taxpayers or jeopardizing the balanced budget that must remain non-negotiable.

The timing is ideal. Natural gas fracking operations, petrochemical off-takers and coal-to-product innovators are flocking to the Marcellus and Appalachian basins. They need reliable highways for heavy equipment, modern freight rail for unit trains and passenger rail commuter links for skilled labor.

Pennsylvania is a day’s drive away from a third of the U.S. population, has abundant natural resources and a growing footprint in manufacturing.

That built-in demand translates into predictable cash flows — the very asset class that global pensions, insurance companies and infrastructure funds crave. Invite them in and they will line up to finance up to $20 billion in highway, rail and bridge projects, all secured by the user fees these booming industries will willingly pay.

Skeptics should note the projects that already work. Virginia’s I-495/95 Express Lanes partnership, financed largely with private equity and toll-backed bonds, opened ahead of schedule, has met every debt target, and has saved drivers tens of millions of hours in traffic.

That success shows what happens when contracts balance public performance standards with reasonable investor returns that scale over time. This is a true public-private partnership — not a commuter tax like Gov. Tom Wolf’s rejected bridge tolling scheme, which I opposed.

To be clear, private money alone never ruins a project; poorly structured, profit-first contracts do.

Early public-private partnerships — Indiana’s initial Toll Road lease is Exhibit A — pursued Wall-Street-sized returns fueled by rosy traffic forecasts and short-term debt. When those forecasts fizzled, the operator collapsed, even though the state kept its upfront payment.

Pennsylvania can avoid that fate by writing deals that cap equity yields, stress-test traffic models and share upside with taxpayers. Investors then collect a steady income stream while the commonwealth enjoys predictable, low-cost financing for three decades. That is a partnership engineered for endurance, not windfalls — Pennsylvania First, not profit first.

I first pitched this strategy as revenue secretary, and the arithmetic has only grown stronger. Start with a pilot, prove the traffic counts, leverage our credit and replicate.

Wall Street and the whole world will be knocking on our door ready to fund projects that knit together LNG processing hubs, coal-conversion plants and advanced-manufacturing clusters.

The result is more industry, more taxpayers and a better quality of life — without a single new broad-based tax.

We can keep patching potholes and squabbling over scarce dollars, or we can think like the financial powerhouse we are.

Under this plan, the commonwealth will harness global capital, modernize our infrastructure and erase the blight that Pennsylvanians feel.

From the Mon Valley’s revived steel mills to the booming Marcellus Shale basin and Scranton’s rail yards, investing in Pennsylvania links our commonwealth to markets far beyond.

When private financing follows a Pennsylvania First blueprint, the only thing that compounds faster than interest is prosperity. The bonds will mature in 30 years; the benefits they unlock will endure for generations. Let’s make Pennsylvania the best it can be.

Rep. Dan Meuser represents Congressional District 9, which includes Schuylkill County.

His Pottsville District Office is located at 121 Progress Avenue, Suite 110, Losch Plaza, Pottsville, PA 17901. Call 570-871-6370.