Roadblock
On the face of it, the most recent increase in tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, including the Mon-Fayette Expressway, don’t seem all that much.
The increase, which takes effect Sunday, will see tolls rise by 6 percent. The most common toll now is $1.80, and that will increase to $1.95 come Sunday.
But the toll increases are causing much bigger problems than forcing motorists to dig deeper in their wallets and purses for some spare change.
For one thing, it’s the ninth straight year that tolls have been raised, and they’re starting to add up. Locally, drivers on the Mon/Fayette Expressway will pay $8.80 in cash and $5.74 with an E-Z Pass to travel the entire 54-mile section of the highway from the West Virginia border to Route 51 in Jefferson. Drivers will pay $6.85 in cash and $4.51 with an E-ZPass to travel from the Searights Road exit in Menallen Township to Route 51.
That’s clearly too much for most motorists, especially on a daily basis. It’s even more problematic because most local motorists can drive for free on other nearby routes. Nevermind, though, that the expressway was built to keep traffic off those crowded and outdated roads.
The tolls are so high that they’re essentially eliminating not only the safety benefits of the expressway but also its economic impact. One of the reasons behind the construction of the expressway was to make it easy for Allegheny County residents to move to Fayette County and the Mon Valley where taxes are generally lower. However, the high tolls have served as a huge obstacle for anyone thinking of moving here.
It’s also been a major problem for businesses and industries thinking of transferring their operations here.
But for all the problems the rising tolls have caused for our local economy they pale in comparison to the bankruptcy problems looming ahead for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
The problem goes back to 2007, when the Legislature needed to raise transportation revenues. Instead of raising the gas tax, which always sets off political firestorms, lawmakers settled on the idea of raising $450 million annually by tolling Interstate 80 and placing higher tolls on the turnpike.
However, the tolling of I-80 was rejected by the federal government. The state Legislature could have devised another means to raise the necessary revenue but decided to do the easy thing and let turnpike and expressway motorists foot the entire $450 million payment through higher tolls.
To make that annual $450 million payment, plus still pay for all the other transportation costs associated with running the turnpike, the commission has had to borrow huge amounts of money. This year, the commission’s debt service is $573 million, over half of the $1.1 billion in revenues the turnpike generates.
Pennsylvania’s Auditor General Eugene DePasquale recently pointed out his concerns in an audit of the turnpike, noting officials can’t keep raising tolls annually while also expecting significant increases in traffic volume.
“At some point, people will refuse to pay the toll and start looking for alternative routes,” said DePasquale in a perfect summation of the problem.
DePasquale contended that the Legislature has no choice but to begin addressing the funding problems facing the turnpike commission and that payment to PennDOT. We couldn’t agree more.
It will be interesting to see if any of the newly elected local Republican legislators will get involved in trying to find a solution to this problem. Local Democratic lawmakers had talked about the problem in the past but claimed they couldn’t do anything since Republicans controlled the Legislature.
Well, that excuse won’t hold any water for local Republican lawmakers. They’re in the majority, and they will have to deal with this problem in one way or another.