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IT’S BEEN TWO years since the Legislature enacted Act 44, a complicated plan that was hailed as a long-term solution for funding the state’s highways and public transit systems.
Its foundation was to be tolling on Interstate 80, the 311-mile east-west roadway that crosses the upper half of the state. But the plan stalled.
State transportation officials must jump-start the effort if Pennsylvania is to avoid huge cutbacks for road and bridge repairs.
Here’s how it was supposed to work. The state Turnpike Commission would manage I-80 and collect revenue from the tolls. In exchange, the turnpike would pay the state $900 million a year for highway and transit projects.
Even after the Federal Highway Administration refused to OK Pennsylvania’s plan last September, state officials didn’t seem worried. They saw it as a temporary setback, confident that the incoming Obama administration would give a different answer.
So far, though, little has changed, and big trouble is just down the road. If the tolling isn’t approved, the turnpike’s annual payments will be cut in half next year, unless the state finds another source of revenue. If the stalemate over Pennsylvania’s 2009-10 budget proves anything, it’s that passing higher driver’s license fees or gas taxes won’t be easy.
The turnpike plan is the better route, especially since short trips won’t be subject to tolling and nine passive overhead devices will be used to assess tolls, which keep traffic moving and are cheaper to install.
Tolling I-80 is the way to go.