Tom Warne Report, 22 March 2013
A former state Senate leader, three former Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission officials and four others have been charged with corruption involving the turnpike.
According to a witness before the grand jury in the investigation into alleged corruption, “The Turnpike is what it is because the General Assembly wants it to be that way. Over the years, despite all these disclosures, despite all of these audits and newspaper articles, despite all of the desires to make it better. It continues. It persists.”
Politicians of both parties are accused of using the turnpike to further their own interests, although the focus of the most recent investigation and charges focus on Democrats. The investigation began in 2009 when Gov. Tom Corbett was attorney general.
The investigation is still in progress, but the current Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Kane noted that there is an eight-year statute of limitations in investigating these matters.
Ideally, the grand jury report and criminal charges filed last week would result in the politically tainted Turnpike Commission to be abolished and PennDOT to absorb its duties. But because state lawmakers have forced the commission deeply into debt, abolishing the agency is nearly impossible. Under 1937 law that established the Turnpike Commission, once its debts were paid off, the roads would be turned over to the state and the agency eliminated.
But Act 44 of 2007 requiring the commission to pay the state $450 million annually until 2057 means Pennsylvanians will be working for generations to pay off the turnpike’s debt. The agency’s debt has risen from $2.5 billion in 2007 to $7.8 billion in 2012 and will continue to rise at that staggering rate, forcing the commission to continue borrowing to keep up.
Since abolishing the commission is not possible, voters will have to demand that elected officials clear the turnpike from its political taint. This could be achieved by prohibiting turnpike commissioners from being involved in political campaigns, not allowing turnpike commissioners and employees to solicit campaign donations or using information, equipment or paid work hours for political purposes. Commissioners should also be prohibited from trying to influence how contracts are awarded.
This is an opinion piece based on recent events that have occurred in Pennsylvania regarding the turnpike authority. While we don’t usually print editorials it contained information relevant to the industry and was deemed appropriate for this week’s Tom Warne Report. TW