[ad_1]
Pennsylvanians can’t count on having a state budget in place by the beginning of July in any given year, but they can be sure of at least one summer government tradition in the Keystone State.
Since 2009, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has raised tolls each and every year, typically announcing the increase in July and putting it into effect the following January.
This year was no different. The PTC has approved a 5% toll increase that will take effect on Jan. 7 and will apply to both E-ZPass and Toll By Plate customers across the commission’s toll highways.
The most common toll for a passenger vehicle will increase next year from $1.80 to $1.90 for E-ZPass customers, and from $4.40 to $4.70 for other drivers.
Barring a significant change in state policy, annual rate hikes will continue into the 2050s.
Turnpike CEO Mark Compton said the commission has been forced to increase tolls annually to meet its financial obligations under the state’s Act 44 plan. That legislation, enacted in 2007, required the turnpike to transfer billions of dollars to the state to support transportation projects. The law was supposed to be accompanied by tolls on Interstate 80. That idea went nowhere, but the required payments already were law, and we’ve been stuck with annual toll hikes since.
“While these payments were once $450 million a year, they have been reduced to $50 million annually,” Compton said in the commission’s announcement of the latest increase. “However, our organization had to borrow to make those payments, which total nearly $8 billion.”
Taken on their own, each annual increase may seem small, but for regular turnpike commuters, they add up over the course of a year.
And the cost of a long trip on the turnpike is astronomical. Right now it costs about $42 for E-ZPass users to cross the state from the Delaware River bridge to the Ohio Gateway. Other drivers pay an astonishing $105. And that’s for a conventional vehicle. Imagine the impact on truckers who take such trips routinely and pay much higher tolls. Those costs get passed down to all of us, even those who never drive on the turnpike.
If nothing else, this should serve as a reminder that people who do any traveling on the turnpike or other toll roads, bridges and tunnels in the region should get an E-ZPass. On the turnpike E-ZPass drivers pay nearly 60% less than those who are charged toll-by-plate rates.
Turnpike officials once again are doing the best they can to find silver linings amid this all too predictable bad news. Crompton said the commission is working hard to keep costs under control, noting that the turnpike’s per-mile passenger toll rate is still below the national average despite annual rate hikes. The commission says its E-ZPass toll rate of 15 cents per mile is almost 20% below a national average of 18 cents.
We commend any efforts to try to keep the turnpike’s operations as efficient as possible. The toll increases are required by law, so it’s crucial that the people running the highway do the best they can to manage the costs they can control while maintaining a system with more than 550 miles of roadway serving more than 500,000 people every day.
The headaches for turnpike motorists must be considered in the context of Pennsylvania’s troubled system for funding transportation. Despite an exorbitant gas tax, the state struggles to come up with enough money to maintain and modernize its transportation infrastructure. Part of the problem is that a significant portion of gas tax money is being diverted to funding the state police.
The 2023-24 proposed state budget, now stalled over an education funding dispute, would move to address that issue. It calls for sustainable funding for the state police through the General Fund, reducing the law enforcement agency’s reliance on the Motor License Fund over the next four years.
That would be a good start toward coming up with a badly needed comprehensive solution to the financial problems facing the turnpike, PennDOT and the rest of the state government.
[ad_2]
Source_link
