It's About Solutions

We have a serious problem in Pennsylvania, a problem that can cripple our economy and stop growth in its tracks. Like most problems, the source of the grief is not a singular event or decision. The problem we have is right underneath us, and it is a topic that hardly gets much press; it is our infrastructure, the roads and bridges we drive on everyday. The infrastructure is old, almost all if it needs repair and some of it needs to be replaced. The problem seems pretty easy to solve, simply go out and rebuild the bridges, add a lane where traffic backs up, fill a pothole, and repave damaged roads. Easy enough, we have done it for years, and there are ample numbers of professionals that are more than qualified to perform the task. Performing the repairs is not the real problem, it is figuring out what to do about the bill when the job is done that poses a real issue.

The bill for all this work, it is expensive, many billions of dollars in Pennsylvania alone. It is a bill that must be paid, and there aren’t too many places to cut costs; at least not enough to make a noticeable difference. In our current situation, the credit cards have been maxed out, the bank account has been drained, and the state has little more than lint in their pockets. We are flat broke, but the bills keep piling up, Pennsylvania falls short almost $3.5 billion. For this reason, Governor Corbett has created a commission of transportation and financial professionals to come up with a solution to the problem. The Transportation Funding Advisory Commission, which was formed in 2011, will hear ideas from around the industry on how to address the funding gap, and not just return our infrastructure to a state of good repair, but establish an infrastructure that will carry us into the future.
Recently, US 422 has taken center stage in the discussion of infrastructure funding. A plan that was presented to the Transportation Funding Advisory Commission uses US 422 as the test case for local funding initiatives. At the center of the plan is a concept that would assess a toll on the highway to fund improvement projects. The toll money that would be collected would be restricted by law to remain on the US 422 Corridor. A plan of this nature would ensure a dedicated stream of revenue to the corridor, revenue that would not be available for projects elsewhere in the state. The project has received a significant amount of press coverage since being announced, justifiably so; this is the first project of its type in the state, and one of the first nationwide.

Tolling has a distinct advantage to funding a specific, high volume roadway, however, it does not fully address the need for funding our entire transportation system. There are still an unknown number of locally owned structurally deficient bridges and locally owned roads that need to be repaired, replaced, or expanded to handle current and future volumes. These smaller projects are equally important to address, but are much more challenging to fund. In addition to the local and low volume roads and bridges are the many state public transportation systems. Many of these systems, including SEPTA, have old and aging equipment that is vital to operating a functional service. We cannot forget or forsake them in our funding plans.

Ideas such as restructuring the fee schedule for registering and inspecting vehicles, changing the taxing structure for oil companies, charging drivers for miles driven are all concepts that have been put on the table. These ideas are only a few of the multitude that have been conceived. The Transportation Funding Advisory Commission is considering them all in hopes of identifying the ones that work best for Pennsylvania. The Commission will, upon hearing all the ideas and thoughts, make a recommendation to Governor Corbett on where to generate the much needed funding to bring our infrastructure into the 21st century. What happens after that will be determined by the state legislature and ultimately the drivers and voters in Pennsylvania.

The fact of the matter is plainly this, without a dramatic change in the way we think about how we use, design, build, maintain, and fund our infrastructure; Pennsylvania will lose its competitive edge and start to lose jobs to areas that have taken on the issue. It is uncertain how the problem will be solved, and it is likely that it will be a multi-faceted approach to the issue. Many may argue that increasing expenses on travel will not bear a positive outcome during a recession. Fortunately, there are a dedicated few that recognize that not addressing the issue will certainly have a negative outcome for the future prosperity of Pennsylvania.

Posted in: local,policy,Shayne Trimbell