By Tricia Pursell
LAMAR — Central Pennsylvania lawmakers and business leaders filled a conference room at a hotel Monday in this Clinton County community to rally another surge of opposition to tolls on Interstate 80.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission announced Monday that it will resubmit an application in support of I-80 tolling to the Federal Highway Administration. An application was rejected last year.
The basis for the anti-tolling gathering on Monday was a study, released the same day, by Tracy C. Miller, of Grove City College, which shows the negative effects tolling would have on businesses and employment rates. Safety also would be compromised, the study said, because many trucks and other vehicles would take to more rural routes to escape tolls on the interstate.
“The study basically shows what we the opponents have been saying for a long time,” said Maria Culp, chief executive officer of the Central Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce, based in Milton.
A major problem, she said, is that issues such as transportation, infrastructure and education are long-term considerations that keep getting stuck in short election cycles, which often prevent progress.
However, there are legislators fighting alongside her and other opponents.
State Rep. Russell H. Fairchild, R-85 of Lewisburg, said he will fight against the tolling plan by sending letters to the Federal Highway Commission and by working with other lawmakers.
Although the commission’s re-application for the tolling was not a surprise, Fairchild said, “I still think there are very big hurdles for them to get over before the federal government approves (the tolling).”
Whatever the timing, Culp said, “We’ve got to be ready to go to Washington if necessary.”
“Today, we’re organized and charged for another battle,” U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-5 of Howard, said Monday. Together, the businesses, industries and residents of Pennsylvania are sending a message loud and clear “that tolling on Interstate 80 is not acceptable,” he said.
Talk of tolling I-80 began two years ago, said Eric Funk, of the Clarion Area Chamber of Business and Industry. “We still don’t have a lot of answers to what I believe are very important questions,” he said.
Act 44, passed two years ago, requires tolls or some other revenue stream to fund the upkeep of state highways. If a plan for the money isn’t found, state funding would be halved by July.
Miller’s study found that users of Interstate 80 already pay the costs of maintaining the roads through fuel and other road taxes. Extra road funding, the study said, would be better found in a 10-cent-per-gallon gas tax, which would raise $600 million a year.
The Associated Press reported that turnpike officials estimated tolling would raise $350 million to $400 million in its first year. They contend that the gasoline tax generates about $65 million each year.
Officials said tolls would increase the cost of consumer goods in order for businesses that use the interstate to pay the tolls.
The study also shows that 14 percent of the 15,000 trucks that travel on much of the Interstate 80 corridor each day would change routes to avoid the tolls, something that likely would triple injury and fatality rates on secondary roads.
In addition, Funk said, the tolls would be increased in order for the Turnpike Commission to pay back the debt incurred by borrowing $540 million to $750 million a year to maintain the roads.
When the 50-year lease agreement expires, he said, residents would have paid off a debt of $38 billion to $73 billion to the Turnpike Commission.
“It’s going to hurt the entire state,” Culp said, adding that the study’s figures are similar to what would be faced in the Central Susquehanna Valley.
She said the solution lies in revenue that comes from several bases, not just one. An increased fuel tax could be balanced by an increase in licensing, for example.
While Monday’s informational gathering was a sort of “preaching to the choir,” Culp said, “The bigger job moving forward is to get the message out to legislators.”
While most area legislators have been supportive, she said they have their work cut out for them. They must convince their colleagues to vote against the tolls.
