For Whom The Road Tolls?
In 1966 the late great senator from Pa, Joseph Sill Clark, said on the senate floor re: the highway system: “It is presently being operated by Barbarians.”
My, how little has changed.
Toll roads are unfortunately legal. That isn’t a surprise since its politicians who make the laws, and also tax us and waste the funds. Roads are undoubtedly a public good we all believe in, and one of the few things the Constitution actually calls for the Federal gov’t to facilitate.
However, when politicos get their wheels all cranked, instead of tightening up the massive current revenue they already get, they grind our gears and find a new way to tax us to account for the revenue shortfalls their own mismanagement created.
For all the complaints about big bad oil companies, they only get about 9 cents of profit per dollar earned, which is comparable to other industries. The gov’t however, gets anywhere from 40 to 50 cents a gallon, (depending on location), which at $3 a gallon, would be ~$0.13 to ~$0.17 earned per dollar spent.
In other words, the gov’t, who does nothing to facilitate it, earns more per dollar of gasoline than the big bad oil companies. But who is calling for repeal of gas taxes? Virtually no one in spite of their regressive nature on the poor. Hillary Clinton meanwhile, wants to soak the oil companies and tax the hell out of them, even though percent wise, they make no more than other comparable industries. (Their record profits are a derivative of the volume of their sales, not a profit margin markup).
In any case, gasoline taxes are just one way the state already gets revenue for roads. Let’s not forget other revenue sources, like sales tax, income tax, property tax, and on and on…
Are Pa politicians really trying to tell us that they aren’t driving enough of our money to Harrisburg for roads? Or are they peeling out money on a lot of fluff and nonsense known as district pork and other such ill conceived waste before they take care of the basic fundamentals first, like roads?
I would venture to guess that rather than cut out their political payoffs and paybacks, they would prefer to Toll the road to cover the shortfall, and further soak the folks that have to use them.
Then there is this little nugget. Once the tolls are enacted, which they promise will 100% go to I-80, what happens to the taxes formerly used for I-80? No doubt they will be shifted to urban mass transit programs, or so it seems. Does the former mayor of Philadelphia really have the ALL the states residents best interests at heart?
I can’t help but feel railroaded.
Politicians have been trying to toll this road since Milton Shapp in the 70’s, with the last failure to do so being under Tom Ridge. The reality now though is that come 2010, we are likely to see tolls in action. The plan has passed as of July ‘07. It passed in spite of the daunting fiscal projections mentioned in the previous post here on the SOS I-80 blog. I would add that in addition to that horrifying information, Dept. of Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler in 2005 told the Senate appropriations committee “it wasn’t a wise move to institute tolls at this time.” Rep.John Peterson has said not a single diversion study has been conducted to see if this would in theory help or hurt the state.
Do we really want to make the PTC, or Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission twice its size by adding Tolls to I-80? This is perhaps the most corrupt state agency in the country, and is responsible for the lack of an interchange between I-76 and I-70, (the “Breezewood mistake”). Need I mention I-99? How long till they toll the acid rock highway?
Finally, this is going to hurt rural residents and businesses the most. If you live north of I-80 in Pa, you especially can’t get by without using I-80. If you’re a company like ‘First Quality’ based in Lock Haven, who specialize in making low cost paper products, your transportation costs just shot up thru the roof! This company has single handedly kept afloat the economic brownout area and turned moribund industrial sites like the old International paper mill into a tax payer again and recently gave a half million dollars to Clinton county for civic uses. It serves all people especially lower wage earners by creating affordable goods and providing good jobs; now suddenly it loses the edge the free highway gives it; don’t be surprised to see it leave via I-80 in your rearview mirror.
The fact is that whether someone, anyone, uses the road or not, doesn’t mean they don’t benefit from it and shouldn’t help support it. Yes, many Pa residents don’t personally ever drive on I-80. But how many of those people don’t benefit from the goods and services they do use that come to them on it? How many communities outside of the two urban centers depend on it for commerce and economic development? Is it fair to place all of the burden for the fire dept on only those whose homes catch fire?
I can only hope, this will drive Clean Sweep II. -mdw
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