Posted on 07/03/2007 11:50:08 AM PDT by Kay Ludlow
BELLEFONTE -- One of up to 10 Interstate 80 toll booths would be put up in Centre County near the Clinton County line and another would be located 40 miles to the west in Clearfield County, according to unofficial plans seen by state Sen. Jake Corman, R-Benner Township.
Corman, majority policy chairman of the Senate Republicans, made the disclosure during a news conference Monday where he assailed Gov. Ed Rendell as "irresponsible" for holding the state budget "hostage until he gets everything he wants done."
The senator said the I-80 map he saw is an early draft and could change as the Senate works on the $720 million transportation funding bill sent to it by the House.
Asked whether I-80 tolls are a done deal, Corman said: "It's getting closer; I'm concerned about it, but clearly that is the momentum of the transportation bill."
I-80 runs 311 miles across Pennsylvania between New Jersey and Ohio, and 100 miles of it lie in Centre County and its neighbors to the east and west, Clinton and Clearfield counties.
Corman said the toll rate would be 8 cents a mile, equal to the Pennsylvania Turnpike rate, and said there would be a maximum of 10 toll gantries, according to the early plan with which he is familiar.
He said I-80 commuters from the Lock Haven area who drive 40 miles to work at Penn State would likely opt for the toll-free but narrow two-lane, state Route 64.
"Three dollars a day twice a day -- they're not going to be going on I-80, they're going to be going on 64," Corman said. "That road's not really ready for that. That would probably prevent me from wanting to support the bill because it would have a really negative impact on commuter traffic."
Corman said he voted against I-80 tolls in the Senate appropriations committee. "My biggest issue is where are these gantries going to be, and how is it going to affect commuter traffic," he said.
Asked why the governor's proposal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike got nowhere fast, Corman compared Rendell unfavorably to Indiana's Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, who undertook a similar transportation funding idea but got bids and set forth a detailed plan.
"Our governor says he wants to lease the turnpike. Did we hear anything after that? Did he go out and get anything specific done?" Corman said. "The governor doesn't really want to do any hard work."
On the state budget, Corman opposed Rendell's call for an electricity tax -- "I think people's energy bills are already significantly high" -- but he harshly criticized the governor for conditioning budget approval on legislation that is not urgent, such as the additional transportation funding.
"We need to focus on the budget -- you cannot hold every other issue hostage for the budget," Corman said. "Let's get it done and continue to address the other issues. ... When the governor wants to focus on the budget, we're ready to talk."
My first knowledge of the interstate system was when my dad told me about these free superhighways all across the country.
I actually can see a point to some toll roads. In terms of supply and demand, people use more of what's free. Especially where you have roads that are extremely crowded some hours, and barely used others, tolls make some sense, to even out use of the road.
In this case, though, that has nothing at all to do with it. They are looking for what they consider 'free' money to use for something unrelated.
In terms of the bigger economic picture, the state has been telling rural PA for years (ever since Ridge and his dang 'growing greener' crap) that even though they are being seriously limited in use of the natural resources and manufacturing, the tourism economy will more than offset that. What will tolls do to that? I know I've avoided places I have to pay a toll to get to - not so much because of the price but because of the hassle. You lose speed, you have to stop, you may get in line, you have to find money, you have to wait for change, etc. There a lots of places to travel and ways to get places that don't include driving through PA. If I recall correctly, that happened to the turnpike when the opened I-80 - given the choice between driving free and paying tolls, many cars and trucks chose the free road, and they were very concerned about having enough $$$ to maintain the turnpike. Same thing will happen with I-80. People will find other ways around, and local businesses and local folks will lose again because of actions by Big Government.
I wasn't specifying gas or highway taxes. Unless private money financed I-80, it was built and paid for with our taxes. It was meant to be maintained with gas and highway taxes, but till you subtract the graft there isn't enough left.
You are positively correct. We showed our worth in killing the Illegal Alien (erroneously call Immigration) bill. Why stop now. It’s time to show Congress who really IS boss. They are just hired hands. Take the power back folks. Fight.
To me it’s a semi-regular trip from my house in Ohio to my parents’ in central PA (Northumberland County). This sucks.
The West Virginia Turnpike predated the interstates. It was grandfathered into the interstate system at the request of West Virginia’s congressional delegation, but the tolls remain. Under the old law, federal monies couldn’t be used to maintain the turnpike. Now, they can.
The feds repealed the provision prohibitng toll roads on interstates?
As the bonds were getting down toward zero in the mid to late 80's,the Turnpike Authority,out of the blue,declared that the Turnpike was in horrendous shape and needed billions of dollars worth of "repairs".They proceeded to vote for the establishment of billions worth of bonds.
Since then, a ballot question was put to the voters regarding taking down the tolls.In the runup to the vote,RAT hacks gathered every cripple within 100 miles of Boston and brought them all to the steps of the State House and declared,essentially,that "if the tolls are taken down,thousands will die".
The question was defeated and the tolls remain...and will almost certainly remain until the end of time.
The RAT hacks won.
People from other states should remember this before they allow toll booths to be erected on any of their state's roads.
To be factually correct the sentence should read, "It was meant to be maintained with gas taxes, other transportation taxes and money from the general fund." The graft factor is there but tends to be overstated.
Correct. I forget which law it was over the past decade, but two laws back, the 1956 provision about tolling was removed.
Pennsylvania faces a real quandary with regard to I-80. The state is old, substandard in many places, and very expensive to maintain (some of the worst weather-related road conditions east of the Mississippi can be found in the Allegheny Mountains of central PA at any given time).
The roadway carries relatively little traffic on a per-mile basis, and much of what it does carry is from adjoining states with lower fuel taxes (New Jersey and Ohio) -- so motorists who can do so will try to avoid buying any fuel there. So it really doesn't even "pay for itself" from a revenue/cost standpoint.
Is that 64?
No. Mostly it's because we build crappy roads that have to be completely rebuilt every 5 years, and resurfaced every other year.
Some states opted to terminate their turnpike authority's existences when the bonds were paid off. Some were licensed by their legislatures to exist in perpetuity.
The Massachusetts story is echoed by New Jersey, but not by Connecticut.
In New Jersey, the original turnpike bonds were paid off in 1981. But back in 1965, a massive new set of bonds was issued to pay for doubling the turnpike's width in North Jersey because of truck traffic. (The New Jersey Turnpike handles 70,000 trucks per day due to poor freight rail connections into and out of the Port of New York/New Jersey.) These bonds expired in 1995.
In that year, the turnpike authority explained to Gov. Whitman that an engineering study done by one of the major consulting firms had pinpointed several bilion dollars worth of improvements that had to be made to the turnpike's physical plant to keep it up to speed. If the turnpike authority was put out of business, those billions would have to come out of the state's gas tax monies. New Jersey's highways -- outside the turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Toll Road -- were badly in need of work, and the last thing Whitman needed was to have the turnpike's multi-billion dollar woes dumped on the highway department's plate. She agreed to let the turnpike authority issue another series of 30 years bonds.
In Connecticut, a bridge over a river collapsed in 1975, killing about a hundred people. An engineering study showed a problem similar to New Jersey's. But back in those halcyon days, the federal-state split was 90-10. The Connecticut Turnpike was also I-95, and if the bonds could be paid off and the tolls removed, the Feds would pay for 90% of the multi-billion load. The state legislature appropriated the money to pay off the bonds, the tolls were removed, and the Connecticut congressional delegation went to Congress with palms extended, seeking billions. They got it.
Bottom line: Massachusetts, like New jersey, chose to pay for the costs of maintenance and improvements by issung new bonds, thus containing the costs within an authority bound by bond covenants. Connecticut had all of America pay for its improvements.
Which was better? Judge for yourself.
I-77, part of which also carries I-64.
As well everyone of them should be. Unless it's a 'post road', privatize it. And no, not every road in these United States can be considered a 'post road'.
That's not the reason. It's because Pennsylvania has too many roads under state control.
Look at neighboring New Jersey. There are many state highways, but much of the load is carried by an extensive county road system.
In Pennsylvania, the posted state highways are only part of the story. If you look closely at a traffic light pole in Pennsylvania, you'll see some alphanumeric hieroglyphics indicating that you are intersecting a 4-digit state road. You are -- but it's so short or insignificant that the state hasn't bothered to post it except at the traffic light, and in small print. In most other states, these short state roads would be under county or local control. But in Pennsylvania, they are a part of the state network, paid for by state taxes.
States are loathe to rethink their procedures for commissioning and decommissioning numbered highways. Pennsylvania needs a rethink.
That explains why Pennsylvania has high state taxes and relatively low local taxes, I guess.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.