Posted on 11/11/2021 12:54:04 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The expected $4 billion increase in federal road and bridge funds over the next five years is raising the rhetoric against the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s proposal to toll nine bridges across the state to pay for their replacement.
The department says its financial problems are so severe that using federal infrastructure funds approved Friday instead of following through with tolling would still prevent the agency from repairing hundreds of other bridges across the state. The $4 billion increase in federal funds over five years will help, the agency said, but it claims it should be spending $8.1 billion more every year to address all of the state’s road and bridge issues.
Critics, many of whom have been against the idea of tolling from the beginning, weren’t happy with the department’s position Tuesday. The state House Transportation Committee, in a previously scheduled meeting, voted to recommend the full House support a Senate bill to require legislative approval before tolling could begin. Local communities also are expected to file a lawsuit later this week challenging the process the agency has followed as it pursues tolling.
“I really have just one word for this and that’s ‘disappointed,’ ” said state Rep. Jason Ortitay, R-Bridgeville, whose district includes one of the bridges being reviewed for tolling, the Interstate 79 bridge near the Bridgeville interchange.
“They obviously have a burning desire to take more money from Pennsylvanians to meet their false narrative of a funding shortfall. We could hand them a check for $20 billion and they would say they need more.”
Mr. Ortitay said he’s frustrated that PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian initially couldn’t find time to attend a meeting with him to discuss tolling, then canceled a scheduled meeting.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
PING!
So what happened to all that extra gas tax money?
State worker’s retirement.
pension bailouts
This quote sums it up PERFECTLY: “We could hand them a check for $20 billion and they would say they need more.”
A grifters primary rule...”Never give up the grift.”
The old mafia Dons would be jealous of PennDot.
Ortitay's outrage is unusual for a PA Republican. Normally, Republicans wouldn't use such an angry word, 'disappointed', they would usually say some like, "oh well, nothing I can do about it." (That's sarcasm for the slow people.)
We have the second highest gasoline taxes in the nation. We are in the top five when it comes to business taxes (9.99%). We have a temporary sales tax going back to the 1960's, which has only been raised multiple times. And we have a personal income rate of 3.07%. But things only get worse. It doesn't matter if Republicans or Democrats run things in PA. It is one big establishment party with its boots on the necks of people who work, forcibly confiscating their hard earned money to give to lazy ass government employees and those with their hands out in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Wish I had a photo of the Springdale/ Creighton PA business owner who, back in the 70s when PennDOT re-routed a highway away from his business, posted a huge sign on his business, stating, “PENNDOT STINKS”
That sign was up there FOR YEARS.
Just like the schools.
All of government.
Meanwhile, those who hate "greedy capitalists" are blind to the unlimited greed of government.
Well if PA lawmakers want to change PennDOT’s mind quick… tell them they will take $2 away from Philly’s SEPTA and Pittsburgh Port Authority mass transit for every dollar they intend to gather from the new bridge tolls. That will change their minds so fast that heads will spin.
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