Commonwealth Court made right call on bridge tolling
Last week, the bell tolled for bridge tolling in Pennsylvania.
In a decision without any dissenters, Commonwealth Court placed a permanent roadblock up against a plan by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to electronically toll nine interstate bridges, including the span on I-79 at the Bridgeville exchange. According to the court, the Public-Private Transportation Partnership (P3) Board did not seek community input on the plan to toll the bridges before it was announced in February 2021. Judge Ellen Ceisler wrote that this violated the provisions of Act 88, which authorizes public-private partnerships for transportation projects.
She also pointed out that the plan appeared to have been approved on the basis of a 鈥渇our-page PowerPoint recommendation from DOT that failed to delineate which, or how many, pieces of public infrastructure the initiative would affect.鈥�
There is, of course, the possibility that the ruling could be appealed to higher courts, but it鈥檚 tough to imagine PennDOT would have better luck elsewhere, and PennDOT released a statement after the ruling saying that the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf wants to talk with the Legislature about alternative ways to fund transportation work without having to rely on the gasoline tax. This doesn鈥檛 sound like PennDOT and the administration are itching to keep the bridge-tolling battle alive.
In fairness, there is a strong argument to be made that the gas tax is inadequate to meet Pennsylvania鈥檚 many transportation needs right now, and it will be even less so in the future. It鈥檚 an inconsistent funding source, vehicles have been getting better gas mileage and electric vehicles that can operate without gasoline at all are looming over the horizon. There does need to be some serious discussion in Harrisburg about how the money can be found to fix all the roads that desperately need patching, and build the thoroughfares that are needed to have a functioning 21st century infrastructure. But that discussion should not include having already hard-pressed drivers and the communities in which they live and work shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden.
It was never announced how much a toll would have been had the plan been approved, but $1 or $2 for each drive across the bridge was mentioned. Let鈥檚 assume $2 would have been the toll 鈥� that would have worked out to $4 for each work day or $20 a week. That鈥檚 not much in and of itself, but add it up over 49 weeks in a year, subtracting two weeks for vacation and another week or so for holidays, and you get close to $1,000. That鈥檚 an amount that many families would be hard-pressed to pay, especially in the face of rising costs for food, housing and other day-to-day necessities.
And even before Commonwealth Court revealed its decision, both leading gubernatorial candidates realized that bridge tolling was kryptonite. Democrat Josh Shapiro said he was 鈥渁bsolutely opposed鈥� to tolling, and Republican Doug Mastriano said, 鈥淧ennDOT was planning to move forward with few details about how expensive these tolls were going to be and without approval from the General Assembly.鈥�
The I-79 bridge at Bridgeville was built in 1965 and last refurbished in 1998. It鈥檚 just one of many bridges in the commonwealth that need repair. Our infrastructure needs to be funded. But it needs to be paid for in a way that is fair to everyone.