Tom Warne Report, 8 February 2013
HARRISBURG – The governor of Pennsylvania’s budget proposal, outlined this week, calls for repealing the 2007 state law that has driven the state Turnpike deeply into debt and resulted in five consecutive years of toll hikes. Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget would sunset Act 44 of 2007 within 10 years, but his administration said motorists would continue to see toll increases on the turnpike over the next decade and probably beyond, as the turnpike pays off $8 billion in debt.
Lawmakers indicated they support the repeal, and hope to find a way to decrease the burden on drivers. Act 44 authorized the Pennsylvania Turnpike to borrow more money for capital projects and raise tolls every year for 50 years to cover the costs. In exchange, the turnpike must pay the state $450 million per year. Of those payments, highways and bridge projects receive $250 million and mass transit, mostly in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, gets $200 million.
Secretary of Transportation Barry Schoch said tolls would go up between 3 percent and 5 percent for the next 10 to 15 years, then increase less for the years following. “The increases will be less once the Act 44 payments end, a few years after it ends,” Schoch said. “There is a lag of a few years before you start seeing toll reductions because you have to pay for the debt that we have already incurred.”
Gov. Corbett’s five-year funding plan included increasing a portion of the state’s gas tax in order to generate an additional $1.8 billion in revenue for transportation projects.