LEGISLATOR UNVEILS TRANSPORTATION FUNDING PLAN

Source: 2010 Transportation Special Session Recap By Jeff Cox

With the Special Session on transportation funding now underway, Rep. Scott Conklin (D-Centre) announced today the introduction of legislation, HB 2, that would implement a toll at the border of the Commonwealth’s interstate highways. The Gateway Tolling for Transportation Independence Today Act would require passenger vehicles to pay $1 and commercial vehicles to pay $5 when crossing a border on an interstate highway in or out of Pennsylvania.

According to Rep. Conklin, this plan would raise at least $235 million and up to $300 million per year to be used for maintenance, upkeep and improvements to the interstate highways and bridges and the administrative costs associated with gateway tolling and mass transit needs. Under the proposal, PennDOT would be responsible for collecting the tolls.

Noting that Pennsylvania is number one in the country for the most amount of deficient bridges and roads, Rep. Conklin said, “We tried ignoring the problem for the past few years and it hasn’t worked.” He also said that with this proposal “those folks who enter into Pennsylvania and use our highways are able to help us pay for those highways.” Rep. Conklin described the proposal as “the first step to bringing Pennsylvania transportation independence.” He concluded, “What we are trying to do is come up with a fair plan overseen by PennDOT so we can start our way back to fixing the hole that has been dug many years before we got here.”

Rep. Michael O’Brien (D-Philadelphia), a co-author of the legislation, commented, “Our proposal to place a toll as you enter and leave the Commonwealth will help to share the burden that we have as a regional hub amongst the users of our highways.” He added, “We will protect the citizens of the Commonwealth from paying burdensome fees for their daily commute.”

Rep. William Kortz (D-Allegheny) described Act 44 as “a good plan”. He said Act 44 “didn’t totally get all the money we need but it got us $1 billion a year” and “it went a long way in helping to repair our roads, bridges and to also fund mass transit.” Rep. Kortz went on to say the federal government’s rejection of tolling I-80 left a gap of $472 million and said this plan would help get back almost $300 million. He noted over 50% of the truck traffic on I-80 is out-of-state. Rep. Kortz commented, “We are repairing roads and bridges for out of state truckers to use for free and this will help capture some of those dollars and bring it back to the state to make those necessary repairs.”

The legislation would apply to Interstates 70, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 86, 90, 95 and 676.

The legislators then responded to questions from the media.

Will this apply to Pennsylvania residents who work in a bordering state?

Rep. Conklin: One the bills you will be seeing me put in shortly will allow two things. One, it will allow individuals that live, vote, and pay taxes in Pennsylvania and work in a neighboring state to do that without cost, The second part of that bill will allow trucking companies with corporate headquarters in Pennsylvania, are incorporated in Pennsylvania, and their trucks are registered in Pennsylvania will also be able to do business in and out of the state without cost.

Rep. O’Brien: My legislative district has the Ben Franklin Bridge which is a major connector between Philadelphia and New Jersey with a lot of daily commuters. We have put language in the bill that will allow for a bulk discount. Certainly, it would be easy to say “okay, if you are a Pennsylvania resident, you don’t have to pay anything at this gateway.” But I believe that would violate the uniform commerce clause of the US Constitution so we put language in there to allow for bulk discount. If you are travelling out of state twenty times a year to your workplace, certainly that would be a qualification.

Could you be more specific about bulk discounts?

Rep. O’Brien: We have allowed language in there to give PennDOT latitude to work this out. For instance, with the Ben Franklin Bridge, when I used to use it, it was a $1 at the time, the discount if you bought a book of tickets; it brought your fare down to 35¢. This is how we envision this being constructed.

Does the federal government have to give its okay since you are, in a way, tolling the interstate system?

Rep. O’Brien: We believe not.

Rep. Conklin: You have to remember that one of the problems with the I-80 tolling plan is that you can’t take revenue from an interstate highway and move it into your general fund. What you are allowed to do is take revenue that is generated and use it on that stretch of highway. So if $200 million is generated on I-80 and the maintenance cost, oversight and administrative cost is costing Pennsylvania $200 million a year, you are allowed to take up to that amount and use it on that highway from the tolling…and then you are able to use your general fund moneys for transit or bridge repairs. That is the idea of this. We are going to take the funding drawn from these gantries to use on those highways and then we will be able to divert that money we taking from our General Fund and use on bridge and highway repairs.

Would PennDOT collect the tolls?

Rep. Conklin: We have PennDOT as the overseer. Since PennDOT is the one who maintains all of these highways we feel that the best plan would be to allow PennDOT to continue the role in which they are active today. Interestingly, a couple of years ago we did a study on PennDOT’s efficiency compared to private contractors that actually showed, contrary to what a lot of people talk about, PennDOT was the most efficient individuals to run these highways and oversee these types of projects.

Do you know PennDOT’s annual costs for maintaining all these roads?

Rep. Conklin: We can get you that information but it would be more than we are talking about. We want to look at this for a few years and allow PennDOT look at adjustments later on down the road.

Do you have any concern about traffic diversion with people avoiding the entry point and getting on the interstate beyond the gantry where you are tolling?

Rep. Conklin: You can get around the Turnpike if you don’t want to pay. That is the reason the tolling is so low at $1. It is low enough it will cost you more in gasoline to be able to get around it. A lot of folks talk about a gas tax or another tax but you have to remember we are running more hybrids, more fuel efficient vehicles today so I don’t believe a gas tax is any longer the answer to how we raise those revenues. We have to start to look at the 21st century instead of what we did in the 20th century.

Are you concerned that the other states may retaliate and charge Pennsylvania drivers coming into their state using the interstate system?

Rep. Conklin: They do now. If you use I-80 in New York, you pay. When you go to Ohio on I-80, you pay. My wife is from Somers Point, New Jersey, and when you go there you pay tolls everywhere you drive. We don’t want to do that. We don’t want to burden our local residents. We don’t want to burden the local taxpayers. What we are trying to do is to come up with a fare plan that will not only alleviate our transportation needs and our infrastructure needs but come up with a fair way that folks using those highways are paying a least a percentage of the fair share.

If I have EZ Pass, is that going to work?

Rep. Conklin: It could be form of that. We are going to work in the most efficient way. The bill calls for either a cash pay or another form. The last thing we want to do is that the gantry fee is so inexpensive that is costs more to collect the $1.

Will there be human toll takers?

Rep. Conklin: Yes

You are running for Lieutenant Governor. Is this part of your campaign?

Rep. Conklin: No. If you look at it as a county commissioner and as a state legislator, it is strictly good government. That is all of what we are trying to do. The Governor asked for a special session. Mike O’Brien and I and some of the other legislators have been talking for quite awhile about how we could do this. Mike and I sat down, drafted the plan for this that is affordable, attractive and eases our transportation worries because ignoring hasn’t worked and we can’t just divert money from other sources of the budget for transportation and say we have taken care of the problem because then we are going to have a problem somewhere else. We need to come up with funding because our traveling needs have changed and we need again look at 21st century formulas that work today.