Aug 3, 2023 2 min read

Given the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s history of cost and corruption, it’s not easy for another government body to make it look good. But the state Legislature has risen to the challenge.

The commission announced recently that, in January, it will raise turnpike tolls for the 16th consecutive year. Due to the 5% increase, the most common auto toll will increase from $1.80 to $1.90 for drivers who use the E-ZPass system, and from $4.40 to $4.70 for others. (Increases round up to the nearest dime.)

But the commission has no choice due to legislative malpractice. Lawmakers in 2007 bungled an ill-advised effort to establish tolls on Interstate 80. Then, reasoning that massive toll increases that drivers would blame on the turnpike commission were better than tax increases that residents would blame on the Legislature, lawmakers required the turnpike to borrow $450 million a year for PennDOT and mass transit.

The commission’s debt is now about $17.2 billion, more than that for the rest of the state government. To pay it, the commission is committed to toll increases every year through 2057, even though the annual borrowing obligation has been reduced to $50 million.

Some lawmakers pay the tolls while driving to Harrisburg, but you pay those, too, through their expense reimbursements. They inflict toll pain without experiencing it.

Legislators should at least mitigate the blunder that their (mostly) predecessors made, to give a break to drivers and to keep the turnpike competitive.

They should find a dedicated funding source for mass transit, which receives the $50 million a year that the turnpike still must borrow. One potential source is gambling revenue, which has increased far faster than state projections due to massive growth in internet sports gambling. The state received $2.3 billion in gambling revenue in the recently ended fiscal year; some of that could go to transit.

Lawmakers also are in the process of devising a means of replacing fuel taxes with a per-mile tax to account for electric vehicles. They could calculate it to help diminish the turnpike debt.

Guaranteed annual 5% toll hikes are a surcharge on bad governance. The Legislature should stop ignoring the problem.

– Scranton Times-Tribune