Lawmakers seek ideas for roads and funding

With the tolling of Interstate 80 now off the table, legislators are scrambling to plug what could be a $452 million shortfall in the state’s transportation budget for 2010-11.

The state House Transportation Committee has begun a tour of the state’s seven geographic regions. Topics of discussion include: the shortfall, the dire need for maintaining the state’s existing highway, bridge and public transit systems and ways to develop sustainable transportation funding. The committee makes a stop in this region at Marywood University on June 10 at 2 p.m.

“By holding these hearings across the state, we can explain what we need to bring our large and aging transportation infrastructure up to date,” said committee Chairman Joseph Markosek, D-Monroeville. “This is one of the most pressing problems in Pennsylvania, and I hope to hear from people who have innovative ideas. As I have said, all options are on the table.”

State Rep. Mike Carroll, D-Avoca, sits on the Transportation Committee and was in Lock Haven on Tuesday to attend the second of the hearings. He said he will be at all seven of them, hoping to not only listen to the residents’ concerns but more importantly, listen to suggestions and funding options.

“I hope the participants talk about where we’re going to raise the money, rather than the projects that need the funding,” Carroll said.

He said that anyone who traverses the state realizes that the infrastructure is worsening and will “continue to deteriorate” without upgrades.

Carroll points to a roadway most in Northeastern Pennsylvania know and loathe: I-81. He said emergency bridge repairs, pothole patching, paving work and routine maintenance seem to be a daily thing, causing backups and headaches for the state Department of Transportation and motorists.

“Many of our interstates and bridges are at the end of their useful life. We have to make a commitment to maintain what we have,” Carroll said.

The state Transportation Advisory Committee estimated in April that Pennsylvania needs to spend at least $3.5 billion a year to keep up with maintenance and demand for roads, bridges, and public transit.

A report issued last month by the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state a grade of D-minus for its roads. That was down from the D grade the state received in a 2006 report from the same group. The state’s mass-transit systems also got a D-minus, while its bridges earned a C.

Raising those grades will cost money, lots of it. That’s clear. But what isn’t clear is where that money will come from.

Act 44 of 2007, which sought to toll Interstate 80 and use the proceeds to help balance the transportation budget, was seen as the answer by the state legislature and Gov. Ed Rendell. But the federal government denied the request, three times, mainly because federal law requires funds generated on a toll road to be used exclusively to maintain that road.

The state’s plan was to use revenue to pay for infrastructure maintenance and to supplement public transit systems throughout the state.

Carroll said he supported the tolling of I-80 because it was a huge revenue generator and would have had little to no impact on motorists who use the interstate to get to and from work.

Once it became clear that the federal government wouldn’t allow the plan to proceed, he said the scramble began to come up with additional funding sources.

These hearings, said state Rep. Rick Geist, R-Altoona, the minority chairman of the transportation committee, “will provide constructive public forums for illustrating the true magnitude and urgency of the problem and for discussing the merits of proposed solutions.”

Among the proposed solutions that Carroll said he would support is increasing the state’s gasoline tax.

He said a suggestion of removing the state police funding from the motor license fund budget to the state’s general fund budget would free up nearly $500 million, but Carroll said that just shifts the burden and that money will have to come from somewhere else to balance the general fund.

He said another potential to bring in some money relatively quickly would be to make the state’s vehicle registration semi-annually instead of annually. That would bring in $72 from every vehicle owner next year instead of the $36 now collected.