Turnpike offers scofflaws last chance to pay toll debt

Grace period without penalties ends Aug. 4

Before the Pennsylvania Turnpike begins enforcing a new state law next month that allows it to suspend vehicle registration for repeat toll scofflaws, the agency is giving them a month to pay their debts at a reduced amount.

The turnpike announced Wednesday that it will offer vehicle owners with more than six unpaid tolls or tolls of more than $500 until Aug. 4 to pay their debts without paying the full late fees. Those 10,611 scofflaws, who owe unpaid tolls and fees totaling $17.1 million, have been sent yet another letter urging them to settle the debts.

Under the program, those with unpaid tolls within the past 60 days can pay the face value of the tolls without any fees. The agency usually charges $25 for the first notice of unpaid fees, $40 for the second notice.

For those with unpaid tolls older than 60 days, the fees will be reduced on a sliding scale based

on how long ago the tolls were due.

For those who don’t pay the outstanding tolls by Aug. 4, the next time they avoid a toll, the agency will begin proceedings to suspend their vehicle registration. Then they will owe all unpaid tolls, all fees, plus a $91 registration reinstatement fee.

“We hope everyone pays,” said turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo Jr. “We can’t suspend anyone today. After Aug. 4, there needs to be a triggering event before we go after their registration.

“The turnpike doesn’t want to [suspend registrations]. The whole reason for the amnesty is for people to pay their outstanding tolls, whether they meet that threshold for suspensions or not.”

The turnpike started a process in May to include a warning note about the consequences of unpaid tolls with every vehicle registration notice the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation sends out for the next year.

In November, the state Legislature passed a bill allowing the turnpike to go after scofflaws, who at that time had racked up more than $49 million in tolls in the three previous years. That is more than $50 million now, Mr. DeFebo said.

Those unpaid tolls are generated when motorists go through the express EZPass lanes without a transponder linked to a credit card to pay the toll. The turnpike photographs the license plates of everyone who drives through the toll system and sends bills tothose who don’t pay.

And it isn’t as if the turnpike hasn’t tried to collect from the scofflaws. The 10,611 worst violators have received 280,855 notices about their unpaid tolls, an average of 26 letters each.

When it was pushing for the ability to suspend vehicle registrations for unpaid tolls last year, the turnpike listed the top two dozen commercial scofflaws, who together owed more than $1.5 million. Because only eight of those firms were from Pennsylvania — 10 were from New Jersey — the law included permissionfor the state to set up reciprocal agreements with other states to allow them to go after each other’s biggest toll avoiders.

But Mr. DeFebo said despite discussions, no reciprocal agreements have been signed yet. Part of the problem, Mr. DeFebo said, is that each state has different penalties for toll avoidance, so they don’t want their motorists punished differently or more seriously under another state’s laws.

“It’s a challenge,” Mr. DeFebo said of collecting tolls from out-of-state scofflaws.