Tolls on Route 22 or Route 33? Why that’s possible.
Pennsylvania drivers beware. There’s a new ball to follow in the shell game the state plays to fund roadwork.
Major bridges could be tolled.
Are tolls necessary? Perhaps. But until the state corrects its current funding model, I’m not convinced they are.
Nonetheless, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation got the green light this month to move ahead with the bridge tolling program, which previously was approved by state lawmakers.
In a news release, PennDOT avoided using the term “tolls.” The release said the program will enable the state “to accelerate critical work on major bridges across the state through the consideration of user fees.”
User fees are tolls.
The state will partner with construction companies to repair or replace bridges, with the companies agreeing to maintain them for a specified period. To pay for the work, tolls would be collected. Once enough is brought in to pay off the work for that bridge, the state would redirect future tolls to other projects, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
The priority is bridges on state-owned interstates and expressways. Routes 22 and 33 fall into those categories.
PennDOT hopes to propose a list of bridges early next year. Work likely wouldn’t start until 2023 at the earliest.
Tolls may be inevitable. With gasoline taxes not raising enough cash to pay for all of the road and bridge work that is needed, and with federal funding flat, the state is looking for additional revenue. Wednesday, PennDOT opened a public input initiative about how to address funding needs.
Roadwork now is funded largely by federal and state gas taxes. Pennsylvania drivers pay the second-highest state gas tax in the nation, 58.7 cents per gallon. There’s a federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon on top of that. Taxes on diesel are even higher, 74.1 cents by the state and 24.4 cents by the feds.
Howabout we spend all of that money where it belongs, though, before we start talking about making drivers pay tolls, too?
More than $4 billion in gas taxes were siphoned to other state needs over six years, including $2.45 billion to the state police, according to a report last year
from the state auditor general.
The state will reduce how much police get from gas taxes in the future, but it still plans to divert money there.
In 2016, lawmakers capped the transfer at $801 million annually and created a schedule to whittle it to $500 million. Legislation is pending to speed up that reduction, to make it happen within four years instead of the planned 10. The bill hasn’t moved, though, and will expire at the end of the year.
The state has plenty of other places it should be spending that money, including about 2,800 structurally deficient bridges.
In its solicitation for public input on funding, PennDOT said Wednesday that the state needs $8.1 billion more every year to meet highway and bridge
work needs. With vehicles being more fuel-efficient and with travel down because of the coronavirus pandemic, gas tax revenues are decreasing. And the federal government is directing more of its share to interstates.
One way PennDOT has been able to keep roadwork moving is by getting a handout from the Pennsylvania Turnpike. That’s part two of the shell game.
Over 12 years, the Turnpike handed more than $6.6 billion in toll money to PennDOT to pay for mass transit and construction on other roads. That money should have been dedicated solely for Turnpike needs.
The Turnpike isn’t being generous because it is flush with cash. It is forced to relinquish money every year because state lawmakers passed a law requiring it. To cover that handout, the Turnpike Commission has to borrow money. And then it has to raise tolls every year to pay off the debt.
Tolling bridges in Pennsylvania is a discussion worth having, as part of a larger discussion about highway and bridge funding models.
Some states, including Pennsylvania, are exploring an alternative of taxing drivers based on how many miles they travel, instead of how much gas they use. Morning Call Road Warrior columnist Tom Shortell is among those participating in a study.
The toll bridge program is just getting started.
“We’re looking at structures of significance based on size, location and cost to replace or rehabilitate, with structural conditions that warrant timely attention to enhance safety and avoid disruption and community impacts if closure or weight restrictions were imposed,” PennDOT spokesperson Alexis Campbell told me.
The state plans to spread out those projects so they aren’t concentrated in one region. Tolls would be collected with E-ZPass, or by billing drivers based on their license plate. There won’t be any gates to stop traffic, Campbell said.
If you’d like to offer PennDOT your thoughts on this idea, you can participate in its new public input program, PennDOT Pathways, at penndot.gov/ funding.
Comments also will be accepted by email to PennDOTPathways@pa.gov; by phone at 717-325-6129; and mail to PA Department of Transportation, Keystone Building, 400 North St., Fifth Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17120.
The deadline is Dec. 17.