Posted on 09/24/2021 5:58:54 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Doesn’t Pennsylvania have a republican majority state house?
1. The state has one of the oldest highway systems in the nation.
2. PennDOT has jurisdiction over something like 40,000 miles of roadway. This is a much bigger system than what you'll find even in larger states. A big reason for this is that PennDOT is responsible for many secondary roads that would be the responsibility of county or local governments in other states.
3. The state is very rural, which means many state roads are not heavily traveled but still have maintenance needs. If you had to design Pennsylvania all over again you'd probably eliminate about half the roads and bridges between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
4. They're on the wrong side of the revenue curve for fuel taxes (i.e., fuel tax hikes will actually generate LESS revenue), and the maintenance needs outlined above are enormous.
Item #4 is what's driving the preference for tolls in Pennsylvania. The state has to accommodate a lot of through traffic destined for major metro areas like New York, Boston and Washington, and these travelers simply don't generate enough tax revenue (to the extend they generate any at all) to cover the cost of their travel in Pennsylvania.
I used to live in pa. If I recall when the fuel tax was increased a significant portion of that tax was earmarked for port and airport improvements in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. So rather than fix roads and bridges something like 40% goes to things other than roads and bridges. I live in Tennessee now. If I see a pothole or broken road it’s notable. When I lived in pa I noticed if the road was smooth and didn’t beat my car to death. When I visit I don’t see any reasonable improvements in Pennsylvania roads even after several years of the higher fuels tax...wonder where that money went.
Allegheny County (home to Pittsburgh, and me), used to have tolls on bridges decades ago... Tolls used to be used many years ago (100 years+ IIRC) on several roads.>>> Most ealier larger bridges and ferries were tolled and completely private. That is stocks were sold and commercial interests would run them and collect tolls. Turnpikes and pikes in general were private tolls roads as were many of the canal infrastructure. For some unique PA history lookup the story of the Delaware and Hudson canal railroad and aqueduct over the delaware river. This canal system supplied new york with cheap coal and is probably responsible for much of its early prosperity.
https://www.hrmm.org/history-blog/the-dh-canal-and-the-hudson-river
The Johnstown flood tax comes to mined!
Between the payroll for thousands of internet porn surfers and payouts to the mob there isn’t much left to actually fix roads.
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While I don't think it will go that far, I made an accidental discovery on a PA Turnpike trip to the Harrisburg area and back.
It seems my transponder didn't get read on return leg. A week or so later, a bill for toll by plate shows up for a flat $10. So I looked up the proper toll on my EZ Pass account and saw that it should've been about double that. I could have entered in the bill number and got it charged to my EZ Pass account at the (usually) lower EZ Pass rate or I could have just mailed in the bill for the flat $10 fee.
I'm not saying what I did, just pointing out the hole in the system.
See my post #29. They WILL mail the bill out of state, but I am not sure what their mechanism is to collect if you don't go back. There are so many uncollected plate tolls in Pennsylvania that a mini-scandal is brewing.
There are a LOT of non payers in the toll by plate method.
That is why you will not see the complete elimination of toll takers on the Maine Turnpike. The current Executive Director told a lunch group I just that getting payment is very problematic. Without reciprocity agreements with other states, there is no enforcement machism. It is especially problematic with Candain truckers.
Every crooked privatization deal that has been made between our corrupt politicians and special kickbacks by big donor class business costs us. In the end be it parking, bridges, highway tolls or sewer the taxpayer will end up paying twice as much to unregulated corporate interests than to government, that citizens still have a level of political control. We are giving our public assets away to business interests that are in bed with crooked politicians just as they did that made billionaire oligarchs in Russia.
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