The George Report

Who should and shouldn’t pay for Interstate 80

By state Rep. Camille “Bud” George, D-74 of Clearfield County

How does this sound?

Even if you never use Interstate 80, you are forced to pay for improvements to and maintenance of the 311-mile federal highway with a 16-cent-a-gallon increase in fuel taxes and 40 percent increases in your license and registration fees.

Don’t like it? I can’t blame you.

OK, instead of the increases in licenses and registration fees to somewhere around $50 for every driver in your family and $100 or more increases for big trucks, you are forced to pay 25-cents-a-gallon more for gasoline or diesel, to pay for I-80.

The only other credible options are:

1) Putting tolls on I-80 and having those who use it pay for it. More than 70 percent of the tolls would be collected from out-of-state drivers; or

2) Leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

You can’t weasel out and vote against any plan because Pennsylvania’s bridges and roads are in dangerous shape – 217 bridges in Clearfield County alone are considered structurally deficient, functionally obsolete, or both. Statewide, more than 6,000 bridges are in similar disrepair.

You saw the bridge collapse in Minnesota this summer, killing 13 people, and know doing nothing in Pennsylvania would be irresponsible. We have scores of bridges in the area with lower ratings than the Minnesota bridge.

You can’t turn to Congress for funding help for a FEDERAL highway system. In the 2005 federal transportation bill, Pennsylvania received the smallest increase of any state in the country. Yet, some of our congressmen have been quick to criticize the state’s attempt to find a solution without offering any solutions.

Can you say “irresponsible?”

The I-80 tolling plan is far from perfect. However it would:

● Invest $2 billion over the next 10 years on I-80 and I-80 alone.

● Free an average of $2.3 billion a year, for the next 50 years, for PennDOT road and bridge projects.

● Set aside $5 million specifically for county-owned bridges.

● Provide 10 percent increases to the road-and-bridge repair programs performed by local municipalities and counties.

Our PennDOT dollars going to maintenance of Interstate 80 – just the section of it in Clearfield County – dwarfs the dollars left for state bridge and highway projects throughout the rest of Clearfield County. I’m sure it’s much the same with Centre County.

As I said, the plan is far from perfect. Our independent truckers and trucking companies have been hammered for years by soaring fuel costs.

However, short of leasing the Turnpike – the governor’s preferred plan -- no alternative would spare consumers from having the costs passed down to them. No interstate plazas would be built to compete with existing truck stops and restaurants.

Every effort would be made to spare local commuters from tolls. According to the Turnpike, which would take over maintenance of I-80, “There will not be a toll at every interchange along the route, and tolls would not be charged for trips between local exits that do not go through toll facilities.”

I wish there was a pain-free plan out there or a magic pot of money to tap. However, wishful thinking won’t repair our roads and bridges.

I don’t think asking everyone in every family to pay higher registration and licensing fees and 16-cents more for a gallon of gas or diesel for repairs to I-80 is fair.

It would have been far simpler to have voted no and risk citizens’ safety. However, sometimes tough issues demand tough solutions.

The plan to lease I-80 is looking better every second.

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