Official opposes vehicle fee hike
Funds would be used to repair bridges; county Commissioner Joe Gale calls it a ‘money grab’
NORRISTOWN >> A plan to raise more money to fix structurally deficient bridges is showing some cracks in the structure of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners.
Republican Commissioner Joe Gale has publicly aired his opposition to an increase for county residents’ vehicle registration fees, calling it a “money grab” by county officials. Democratic Commissioner Val Arkoosh said Gale was doing a money grab of his own, using the issue to fill his campaign coffers.
If the fee increase does pass, Montgomery County would join 12 other counties in Pennsylvania enacting an option set forth by state legislation for counties to tack on a $5 fee for each vehicle registration.
The money, under the transportation funding bill Act 89, would be designated entirely for transportation-related projects, including the county’s push to repair bridges.
“The staff recommendation was that enacting this fee would bring about $3.5 million in revenue to the county each year,” Arkoosh said. “That would be a very positive impact on our ability to carry out our most primary responsibility, which it so maintain infrastructure in the county.”
While Gale agrees that infrastructure is at the core of government’s purpose, he railed against fee increases, proposing that measures should be
taken instead to reduce the cost of these projects.
“The root of the problem is the cost of construction for public projects,” Gale said. “I want to see prevailing wage reform and open up the bid process. Public projects rely so heavily on union labor, which tends to be more costly and takes longer to complete. We should open up the bids to more independent contractors.”
Currently, according to the county’s procurement policy, contractors are required to have a record of compliance with wage and labor laws, an apprenticeship program for applicable trades and comprehensive health benefits for employees and their families.
The fee was tentatively placed on the agenda for the Aug. 18 meeting of the commissioners, but later removed. Gale is claiming its removal as a personal victory.
“There was panic as to the fact I was opposed to it,” he said. “It was pulled off the agenda. I am really curious to see how this will go. They desperately want a 3-0 vote, and I will not deliver that.”
Arkoosh said that the matter will likely be on an agenda before the end of the year. County staff is still researching ways to use the funds procured from the fee to leverage more money towards fixing the county’s structurally deficient bridges.
Commissioners’ Chairman Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has also expressed his support of the measure, and said that it was only taken off of the agenda to explore the right way to use the funds.
“This is an important tool to increase our historic investment in Montgomery County infrastructure and we are evaluating all of the financing option, when that analysis is complete we will consider the issue,” Shapiro said.
The county owns 133 bridges and 75 miles of road. Lee Soltysiak, deputy chief operating officer for the county, said that there are hundreds of millions dollars’ worth of roads and bridge projects that are marked as priority.
“This would be a dedicated revenue source for these road and bridge projects moving forward,” Soltysiak said.
While Gale has cast votes against those of Democrat majority commissioners Shapiro and Arkoosh in the past, this is the first time he is taking that opposition out on the road. He has given interviews about it, and has used campaign money to pay for radio ads against it.
On his website, he calls for supporters to contact Arkoosh and Shapiro to voice opposition to the fee, and requests donations to help fund more radio ads and outreach.
“I think if I have to make the public aware. The other two (commissioners) are surrounded by friends and, I don’t know if you want to use the word cronies, but I’m not and I want to let them know that there are other members of the public who agree with me, and that may sway them,” Gale said.
In the process, he has used rhetoric and strategy that risks alienating his fellow commissioners, county staff and even fellow Republicans.
“I didn’t know how Commissioner Gale felt about the issue. I had not spoken with him about it, but at the last conversation with the staff he did not make it clear that was his position,” Arkoosh said, adding that she and much of the county staff found out about his position after Gale put it on his website.
“I find it ironic that we’re looking at enacting this to help our constituents, and he is using this issue as a way to ask people to give him money into his campaign coffers,” she said.
The newest commissioner has been compared to Donald Trump for his tactics and his way of branding himself as an outsider. Gale himself has made the comparison when he endorsed Trump early in the primaries, saying in a press release, “Like me, he is beholden to no one except the people.”
Those tactics stand in contrast to the prior administration, where Gale’s predecessor as minority Republican on the board Bruce L. Castor Jr. voted with his fellow commissioners nearly every time.
“Any concerns, there was a process, and the process has worked beautifully in the prior four years,” Arkoosh said. “Each commissioner’s concerns were accommodated as best as possible, virtually every vote was unanimous. The process is robust and does work, but it does require participation of all three commissioners for that process to work.”
Gale has instead has gone directly to the public with his concerns, and hasn’t backed away from slinging mud during his rally against the registration fee. When asked about his relationship with his fellow commissioners, he alleged that Chairman Shapiro hasn’t been around.
“Shapiro’s absent, pretty much since I’ve been there, due to his statewide campaign,” Gale said.
Shapiro responded to the allegation, pointing out that he has never missed a single commissioner’s meeting since he was sworn in January of 2012.
“Even when I’m on the road serving as chairman of Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, working on important regional issues or campaigning for Attorney General, I am always engaged with our team. And I’m just as affective dealing with the issues at hand,” Shapiro said.
In a radio interview Monday with conservative talk show host Dom Giordano, Gale also criticized Republican State Rep. Mike Vereb for his support of Act 89, which allowed increased gas tax and the option for counties to tack on the $5 registration increase.
“We have the highest gas tax in the nation and infrastructure is one of the core functions of the government, so that should already be done with what they have,” Gale said. “I don’t think we should go back to the taxpayers.”
Vereb resigned as Montgomery County GOP chairman shortly after Gale’s election. Gale did not have the support of the party in the primaries. Now, Vereb continues to see Gale as a party outsider.
“I don’t think he can come to terms with the party. Politics is a team sport, and the only team Joe has is his brother and Dom Giordano,” Vereb said.
He also called Gale a “hypocrite” for attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies for bridges, but opposing measures that would fund those projects.
“I don’t challenge Joe his position, but if you’re going to make that your position, don’t stand at ribbon cuttings and dedications,” Vereb said.
And while politicians from both sides of the aisle are engaged in a war of words with Gale, he is using it as proof that he is the outsider fighting for the county.
“I don’t go along to get along,” he said. “That’s not what the public expects me to do.”