Posted on 04/02/2018 7:15:39 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Elizabeth Zemba of Mt. Pleasant, a daily Pennsylvania Turnpike traveler, turned to art and creativity to express frustration with the highway's ever-rising tolls.
She created an Internet meme.
A photo of a turnpike tollbooth is overlaid with the logo: "Pennsylvania Turnpike re-inventing highway robbery since 2009."
For many, annual turnpike toll increases simply have become too much to bear.
Two weeks ago, a coalition of truckers and motorists advocates filed a class action suit against the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, PennDOT and Gov. Tom Wolf, seeking to recoup "excessive fees" that went to underwrite projects other than the operation of the turnpike. Such fees, they claimed, were a violation of the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause.
The truckers groups contend federal interstate commerce laws specify that turnpike tolls can only be used to maintain or expand the 359-mile highway.
For decades, the turnpike was the perfect place for powerful Pennsylvania lawmakers to park politically connected friends and contractors.
Court archives and various independent investigations detail the history of corruption, nepotism and cronyism in the operations of America's first superhighway from 1957 through 2014.
But it wasn't until 2007 that state lawmakers, reluctant to pass new taxes or lease the turnpike to a private bidder, added what some travelers refer to as highway robbery to the mix when they passed Act 44. The act required the commission to divert at least $450 million a year to PennDOT for the next 50 years.
The plan called for tolling Interstate 80, which the federal government later rejected. However, the annual payments to PennDOT are continuing.
(Excerpt) Read more at triblive.com ...
“..Turnpike toll hikes are ‘highway robbery’”........
I guess one could claim such in court if arrested for failing to pay a toll. Bet you’d still lose.
Wissahickon Skating Club, soft pretzels, Ralph’s Restaurant, Chinatown, Art Museum, West River Drive, Wissahickon Drive, Valley Green, Academy of Music, Kimmel Center, Flower Show, Zoo, Franklin Institute, Reading Terminal, Independence Hall, upper Germantown Avenue at Christmas.
Thanks for the response. As soon as I retire, I am fleeing Communist California for the east coast. I am lanibg toward South Carolina but am intrigued by both Farragut TN and Johnson City TN.
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