Posted on 10/30/2016 7:05:02 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
More than 15 years ago, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission decided to offer free-flowing EZPass lanes, a way for motorists to use transponders to report tolls to a credit card for payment.
Ohio and other states offer EZPass but motorists must pass through a gate once the system recognizes their transponder. If a motorist does not have a transponder, the gate stays closed. In Pennsylvania, to keep traffic moving, there are no gates.
That means it’s easy to drive on the highway without paying tolls. So easy that one New Jersey firm has made more than 7,600 trips and owes more than $678,000 in unpaid tolls, according to figures released Tuesday by the turnpike commission.
The names of the top offenders were released as the state Legislature considers a law that would allow the state to revoke the vehicle registrations of chronic offenders and allow it to work with other states to go after scofflaws whose vehicles are registered outside Pennsylvania. The state Senate passed the law Monday and it is awaiting consideration in the House.
“That was one of the keys — to show [the Legislature] how big an issue this is,” said commission spokesman Carl DeFabo Jr.
The list of two dozen commercial offenders who owe more than $20,000 includes 10 firms from New Jersey and eight in Pennsylvania. Overall, the dirty two dozen have 19,134 violations and owe the state $1.54 million.
The commission uses cameras in the EZPass lanes to photograph license plates so every scofflaw can be identified. Then they are sent notices in an effort to get them to pay, and the commission also has filed lawsuits against the worst offenders.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Two dozen companies created jobs and added millions in value to the communities they work in by being able to keep $1.5 million of their money from the gov’t grasping for it.
Number 3 on the list is U-Haul, but they are only about 10% of the number one on the list. Most of the top 10 appear to be trucking companies, so they have to know what they are doing.
Probably FOBs ... Friends of Bill.
The PA Turnpike wouldn't exist without this toll revenue, so the $1.5M in lost revenue will be covered by law-abiding motorists.
Heck .... Is one the Clinton Foundation?
Here in California on a toll road in southern Orange County, the most egregious violators are member of law enforcement and their families, whose vehicle license plates “are hidden from the toll authority by law” to “protect them from criminals.” The one expose I read was that the top violator was a “white hat” who worked at LAX who had run up in excess of $15,000 in unpaid tolls and another was a “police dept. telephone operator,” who thanks to our legislators is also considered a member of law enforcement. Again, we have become a nation of scum suckers in our public employee ranks. They all think that we “owe” them even more than the overly generous pay and benefits that are bankrupting our cities and counties, and will soon migrate to our states.
No tolls are needed. Taxes are very high all over that pays for everything. No reason other then greed on the part of the gov’t.... pay for pensions as an example while law-abiding motorists non gov’t workers are screwed out of their retirement income or jobs in the first place because of $1.5 million being taken by the gov’t instead of going to pay people to work.
My aunt & uncle were paying $9,000 a year in property taxes in New Jersey for a single story rambler house in 2003. They paid $43,000 to build a house in 1959. The gov’t has been robbing people forever.
I agree, if there is a toll road, there should be a freeway which allows the same route at no cost. Indiana has done a GREAT job of doing so. You can cross Indiana on a beautiful toll road, or, a few miles south, you can cross free.
You can complain about tolls all you want, but nobody -- especially a trucking company -- is obligated to use it. There are plenty of "free" alternatives for them to use, but they decided to rip off their fellow motorists instead.
My aunt & uncle were paying $9,000 a year in property taxes in New Jersey for a single story rambler house in 2003. They paid $43,000 to build a house in 1959. The gov’t has been robbing people forever.
Great -- I hope they left. At least a toll is an optional "tax," isn't it?
You must love taxes. Please write another check to Uncle Sam.
I love a tax that I don't have to pay if I don't want to, and that's exactly what a toll is.
If they paid the tolls, they would not have the money to contribute to democrat pols
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