Reschenthaler wants to block federal funding to PennDOT over toll plan
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Peters, wants to block the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation from accessing federal funding if it moves ahead with its plans to charge tolls to fund the replacement of nine bridges across the state.
Mr. Reschenthaler proposed an amendment to the annual transportation funding bill on Friday to prohibit PennDOT from accessing federal dollars if it imposes additional tolls on existing roadways or bridges on the federal highway system.
All nine bridges PennDOT slated to be tolled — including the double span carrying I-79 over Route 50 near Bridgeville — are federal highways.
“This is nothing more than a tax on Pennsylvania’s workers and families who use these bridges every day to travel to work and school,” Mr. Reschenthaler said while introducing his amendment during a markup hearing held by the House Appropriations Committee.
“It would disproportionately impact our nation’s tradesmen, medical professionals and others who aren’t part of what I call the ‘ Zoom class,’ ” Mr. Reschenthaler said.
The amendment was ultimately rejected by the Democratically controlled committee on a 33-24 vote.
It was the latest futile move by critics of PennDOT’s plans to slam the agency for leaning on tolls to fund bridge replacement projects.
Trucking groups and Republican state lawmakers have questioned the wisdom of new tolls on motorists who already pay among the highest gasoline taxes in the country and routinely pass through toll plazas.
The plans also highlight the political challenge of coming up with a way to pay for infrastructure projects at a time when Congress is debating a bipartisan plan to do just that.
PennDOT has defended its plan by pointing to its portfolio of neglected and underfunded infrastructure. The agency claims it is spending at least $8 billion less than it should every year on roads and bridges, and tolling is an option to directly fund new bridges it couldn’t otherwise afford to replace.
Some Republicans in Congress, including Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., have suggested leaning more on user fees, like tolls, to raise revenue instead of raising taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans.
It is unclear if Mr. Reschenthaler supports any of the infrastructure proposals in their current form. His office did not respond to a request for an interview Monday.
“I recognize the need to find a sustainable funding mechanism to fix Pennsylvania’s roads and bridges,” he said on Friday, “but taxing Pennsylvanians in the form of new tolls is not the answer.”
U.S. Rep. David Price, DN.C., chair of the subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, responded it was outside the jurisdiction of the committee to weigh in on state tolling schemes and punish state governments for imposing certain tolls.
“It would pre-empt the commonwealth’s authority to make decisions on this at the local or state level where the authority currently lies,” Mr. Price said. Effectively, it would “be reconstituting this committee as the Pennsylvania Board of Transportation.”
“If and when the federal government does need to deal with something like this, with the authority of states to impose tolls on federally owned highways, that responsibility certainly doesn’t lie with us,” Mr. Price said. “It lies with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee,” the authorizing committee that has the role to establish or modify programs.
U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Lackawanna, chimed in to sympathize with toll-weary Pennsylvanians.
“It’s not my favorite means of raising money,” Mr. Cartwright said, calling it a regressive tax that harms the middle class, “and I do agree we ought to examine some of those bridges you discussed.”
But Mr. Cartwright voted against the amendment because it “goes overboard,” he said. “There are some instances where I think it would prevent a toll plaza that we all agree would make sense.”
Mr. Cartwright cited Interstate 80 as an example of a road that should collect more tolling revenue because the majority of traffic is passing through the state.
“We see those rigs all over the road; we see their out-ofstate license plates,” Mr. Cartwright said.
“This road takes a real beating.”