HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) - Just how much should Pennsylvania spend on transportation? That's a big question right now in Harrisburg as the Department of Transportation Secretary took to the hot seat during an appropriations hearing on Monday.

Hundreds of millions of gas tax dollars are diverted to Pennsylvania State Police and not to fix roads and bridges. All despite Pennsylvania having the second-highest gas tax in the country.

State Rep. John Lawrence (R-Chester) said people are frustrated with paying such a high tax and "aren't seeing the results when they drive down the road."

Mass transit funding will be a bumpy road with Governor Josh Shapiro requesting $300 million more in his budget proposal, pushing the overall investment to $1 billion. Much of that increase would go to SEPTA in the Philadelphia region.

Some rural Republicans say that's throwing good money after bad. PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll disagrees.

"It's not good money after bad. It's an investment in our commonwealth, the economy of Pennsylvania is driven in a large way by the economic activity in southeastern Pennsylvania," said Carroll.

Ed Neilson is the Democratic Chair of the Transportation Committee and knows his colleagues grumble at big subsidies for a Philadelphia regional system that's losing riders and federal pandemic money.

"People are upset about it because most of the reps don't come from these areas," said Neilson, who represents part of Philadelphia. "But if you look at the tax base for Pennsylvania, 46% of the funding for this budget comes from those counties. Thus, they do require more."

Transportation is just one of the areas where the Governor wants to spend big and it's another area where Republicans aren't on board.

"This is a budget that we see spends $3 billion more than it brings in," said Lawrence. "(Shapiro is) looking to spend a tremendous amount of money that we don't have that's not sustainable."

There was also a renewed call to put a fee on electric vehicles that use the roads but don't pay to fix them through the gas tax. Policymakers are worried, though, if that fee is too high, it will chase people away from electric vehicles.