Cutting pike agency’s duties weighed
PennDOT would oversee all interstate roads
The Pennsylvania Senate has ordered an 18-month review that’s supposed to determine whether the state’s Department of Transportation and its Turnpike Commission could combine services on interstate highways.
But in reality, the study likely will look at whether the state needs the Turnpike Commission for anything other than handling debt service. And it could go a long way to deciding how the state can cover a $450 million annual payment the turnpike makes to PennDOT to subsidize public transit when it drops to $50 million in 2023.
A Senate resolution sponsored by Republicans John Rafferty of Montgomery County and Scott Hutchinson of Oil City requires the Joint State Government Commission to study the issue and prepare a report in 18 months. Mr. Rafferty is chairman of the transportation committee and Mr. Hutchinson heads the finance committee.
The commission, which every member of the General Assembly belongs to, has a staff that may do the study itself or it could hire a consultant, said Nolan Ritchie, executive director of the transportation committee.
Right now, the turnpike commission handles the main turnpike and other toll roads in the state, all of which are interstate highways maintained by toll receipts. PennDOT handles the other interstate highways — as well as all other state highways — through grants, motor license fees and borrowing.
Mr. Ritchie said consolidating interstate operations at the agencies could go two ways: PennDOT could turn over its responsibility for non-toll interstate highways to the turnpike and concentrate on other roads, bridges and transit, or the turnpike could cede toll roads to PennDOT. If the latter happened, the turnpike would be left with no operational duties other than collecting tolls and paying debt service.
“I would say both options are on the table,” Mr. Ritchie said.
Both agencies say they welcome the detailed review of their operations.
“Everything we do has to be looked at with the idea: ‘Can we do it better,’ “turnpike CEO Mark Compton said. “I think [the study] is really prudent and we have no issue with it. It’s one of the things [the Legislature] should be doing.”
Mr. Compton said he ordered a similar review of whether the agencies should combine operations when he went to the turnpike from PennDOT five years ago and found that states handle toll roads various ways. There didn’t seem to be an advantage either way, he said, so there was no move to combine operations.
Leslie Richards, who is in a unique situation as PennDOT secretary and chairwoman of the turnpike commission’s board, said she sees the value in the study, too. In addition to the money for public transit, Ms. Richards cited how to handle turnpike debt — which takes up more than half of its $900 million annual
budget — as a key issue.
“Obviously, we’re always looking at ways we can improve,” she said. “I’m definitely open to looking at the findings.”
Helping to fund transit has been an albatross for the turnpike since the Legislature ordered it in 2008, at a time when then-Gov. Ed Rendell expected federal officials to allow tolling on Interstate 80. The tolling never happened, but the turnpike still is stuck with borrowing money annually to pay part of the $450 million obligation to PennDOT.
“It’s obviously the multimillion-dollar question right now,” Ms. Richards said. “You have transit that has to be funded. How that gets solved will definitely be something that’s talked about here.”