Auditor General: PennDOT audit finds over $4B diverted from repairing roads, bridges

WJACTV.com ^ | April 25, 2019 | Travis Gary

[Twotone]

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WJAC) — A state audit of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has found that billions of dollars have been diverted over the years that could have been spent repairing roads and bridges.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale announced the findings of his new audit Thursday, saying that PennDOT could be further along in repairing rough highways and fixing 2,829 structurally deficient bridges had it not been forced to pay state police.

DePasquale said that the transfers from the Motor License Fund to state police totaled more than $4.2 billion since the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

“More than 2,800 state-maintained bridges across Pennsylvania are structurally deficient and our bridges average over 50 years in age – beyond what they were designed to last,” DePasquale said. “That $4.25 billion could have cut that list in half and if PennDOT could use all of the gas tax money for roads and bridges we could get that number to zero in about five years.”

[NonValueAdded]

“Safety of public highways,” right there in the law. Now one must dig into legislative intent. And also audit the troopers to see if it was all spent on safety.

[Don W]

It’s a revenue stream: Someone gets close to the edge of their lane, or travels .0001 MPH over the speed limit, or 2 MPH under the speed limit (seen it happen) gets a ticket. Is your plate slightly loose on one side? Were you driving on a gravel road and dust has covered your plate? Pick up a rock chip in the windshield on your drive this morning?

Traffic cops target the easy tickets, not the truly dangerous events. Only when it’s right in front of them do they actually deal with serious hazards.

[Rj Snows]

In Sacramento they got new garbage trucks and on the side of it is a paragraph that states that funds from the tobacco settlement bought that truck

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yep. I avoid IL as much as possible, too! :)

[sparklite2]

Without police protection, you wouldn’t want to be a highway worker in California.

[BikerJoe]

“Part of the reason the State Police cost so much is that over half the jurisdictions in the state don’t have a local police force, so the State Police have to fill that role. There’s talk of instituting a head tax in those places to help pay” This is horse hockey. Most of those areas are so rural there is almost no need of cops. How many extra officers were specifically hired and outfitted to cover the areas in question?

Here's an article below describing the situation. Some of the communities have plenty of money, but just decide that it's cheaper to have the State Police do it, since there's little financial consequence (yet). And they're NOT small communities.
Trib Article

[Phil DiBasquette]

Shovel ready BS

[SueRae]

Accurate point. I can name several townships in my area that have no local police force, only State.

[SueRae]

Not horse hockey at all. At least not in my county. Population has increased substantially in those once rural area in Chester and surrounding counties yet they still have State Police and no local p.d.

[marajade]

Be grateful. They could have raised your waste removal fees to cover it instead.

One thing the City of Sacramento still does is remove yard waste from in front of the residence in the gutter. Eliminating that would save costs on fees.

[marajade]

Isn’t DOT and state police two different agencies? Isn’t money appropriated at each agency?

That would never be allowed in AZ. That would take legislature passing a bill and governor signage approval.

[Hot Tabasco]

I heard that LA County used it’s share of the old Tobacco Settlement money to

The attorneys who handled Michigan's lawsuit against big tobacco netted $32 million...And all they had to do was rely on the data that was already created by a southern law firm that represented other states.

[CommerceComet]

I like sidewalks, but...how did smoking injure sidewalks..?

If the research is to be believed, second-hand smoke is pretty bad stuff. I would have never guessed this bad, though.

[caseinpoint]

You are probably right. I just suggested part of the money that was going to the police was perhaps paying for it.

[caseinpoint]

Maybe so. But I have commuted along a construction project for many months now and have never seen a cop car leave the construction area to chase anyone. The commute is daylight one way and half the time dark the other way. The construction is a widening project on I580 and I have assumed a law required police at each site.