Pa. lawmakers unhappy about tolls reminded of law they passed in 2012
Pennsylvania state lawmakers unhappy Gov. Tom Wolf ’s administration is considering tolling nine major bridges were warned about that prospect when they passed legislation in 2012 delegating approval to appointees of the governor and top lawmakers, they were told Tuesday.
Rep. Mike Carroll, D-Luzerne, reminded colleagues of that vote at the end of an Appropriations Committee hearing during which more than a half dozen committee members questioned Transportation Secretary Yassmin Gramian about potential bridge tolls.
“It turns out it’s difficult to fund transportation,” Carroll told colleagues during the hearing.
But, Carroll said, “those were decisions that we made, that this General Assembly made, in an effort to find an easy path forward for an admittedly very complicated problem.”
Carroll voted against the 2012 bill, but other lawmakers now criticizing potential tolls backed the bill.
The Public-Private Transportation Partnership Board, created by a 2012 law, in November voted for the first time to approve toll projects. The “major bridge” program allows the Department of Transportation to toll bridges to fund improvements.
PennDOT last week named nine bridges, including a bridge on Interstate 78 near the Lenhartsville interchange in Berks County, that it said it is considering tolling to pay for reconstruction.
Tolls would be $1-$2, probably both ways, raise about $2.2 billion and last from the start of construction in 2023 for three or four years until construction is finished, Gramian told the Appropriations Committee.
Tolling would be electronic and collected through E-ZPass or license-plate billing, PennDOT has said. The money collected on a bridge is supposed to go toward its construction, maintenance and operation.
The bridges, in addition to the I-78 bridge, are I-79’s bridges over Route 50 in Allegheny County; I-80’s bridges across Canoe Creek in Clarion County, Nescopeck Creek in Luzerne County, North Fork in Jefferson County and the Lehigh River, near Wilkes-Barre; I-81 over the Susquehanna River in northern Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna County; I-83’s South Bridge across the Susquehanna River, a mile from the state Capitol and downtown Harrisburg; and I-95’s milelong double-decked Girard Point Bridge across the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.
PennDOT has said it selected major bridges badly in need of repair and balanced its selections by geography to limit the impact on any one area.
A number of lawmakers on Tuesday warned that the impact of the tolls’ cost will hurt commuters and commercial haulers.
Transportation Committee Chairperson Tim Hennessey, R-Chester, suggested borrowing the money.
But Gramian responded that payments on a bond would have to come from existing highway construction funds and take money from other, future construction projects.
States are seeing stagnant revenue from gasoline taxes, the major source of cash for highway construction, as vehicles are becoming more fuel-efficient and more people buy electric cars.
As an alternative, states are exploring user fees as a longterm replacement for declining gas tax revenue. The federal government has not increased the gas tax since 1993 and is encouraging states to explore user fees.
PennDOT has said its current highway and bridge budget for construction and maintenance is about $6.9 billion per year, less than half of the $15 billion needed to keep Pennsylvania’s highways and bridges in good condition and ease major traffic bottlenecks.