You get what you pay for
You’ve heard it a million times: You get what you pay for.
Pennsylvanians are paying more for gasoline and vehicle fees courtesy of that $2.3 billion transportation package passed by the state Legislature last November.
No one likes the idea of paying more. Just ask state conservatives. They went so far as to accuse Gov. Tom Corbett of betraying the “notax” pledge he used to march into the governor’s mansion when he threw his weight behind the measure.
They pointed to removing the caps on some gas taxes that will eventually add another 28 cents per gallon at the pump. Raise your hand if you’re a fan of paying “though the nozzle?”
And that’s not all. Fees to for driver’s licenses and car registrations also went up.
The embattled governor stood his ground and got his Republican brethren in both the House and Senate to back the proposal, something he so far has been unable to do when it comes to two other items high on his agenda, pension reform and privatization of liquor sales in the state.
Guess what? It was the right thing to do.
The state’s infrastructure literally was crumbling around us. The brutal winter left a lot of heavily traveled roads such as I-95 and the Blue Route looking more like battlefields than interstate highways.
Bridges across the state were labeled dangerous. Luckily, none of them have yet collapsed.
After the passage of Act 89, the landmark transportation package, PennDOT started 250 highway and bridge projects and 50 mass transit projects that would be given the green light with funding from the measure.
Now we’re starting to see the results. Unfortunately, they arrive with another reminder: Traffic woes. It’s the sounds of summer around Montgomery County as graders and steamrollers attack the roads. It only seems as if every road you travel is being torn up or detoured altogether.
Of course, when you’re sitting in traffic on a boiling hot summer day, it’s hard to remember that this will result in a smoother, faster commute in the near future.
And Montgomery County residents headed to the Delaware beaches have had a monstrous commuter headache awaiting them below the border. That’s where I-495 has been shut down for weeks because of a failing bridge, pushing all the traffic onto the already congested I-95 through the heart of Wilmington. President Obama will visit the site today as he makes his own push for funding for a major infrastructure initiative.
These problems were allowed to fest far too long. Now we’re paying the price. Consider it the price of progress. Paying more at the pump. And more for some fees. And sitting in traffic during construction projects. Getting a smooth, safe highway and transit system? Priceless.