Saturday,
June 30, Pennsylvania’s legislature passed and sent to Governor Tom Corbett a
measure setting up a seven member state panel to approve transportation
projects funded by a mixture of public and private money. Though the bill, if
signed into law, would make Pennsylvania the thirty-third state to have such a
law on the books, it does nothing to solve the state’s road funding budget deficit
which leaves Pennsylvania with over 5,000 structurally deficient bridges and
8,000 miles, or 26% of state highways, in very poor condition.
The
bill is designed to permit private companies to propose “capacity enhancing”
projects like adding variable toll “congestion relief” lanes to interstate
highways, where tolls could be factored on number of vehicle occupants and
level of traffic congestion in the neighboring free road lanes. The bill specifically
prohibits leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private toll operator, without
separate legislative approval. Pennsylvania State Representative Richard Geist
predicts that the measure will promote creation of additional construction jobs
in the state despite the road building budget deficit, while opponent State
Representative Steve Santarsiero argues that the bill will take away taxpayer
control of road building priorities in the state. A Santarsiero sponsored
amendment which would have required construction companies working on projects
approved under the measure to give hiring preference to Pennsylvania workers,
and use steel produced in Pennsylvania mills, was defeated.
Governor
Corbett has not proposed any revenue raisers to address the crumbling roads and
bridges across his state, or to close the state’s $3.5 billion annual
transportation budget shortfall.
