Plan for tolls on I-80 likely to go by the roadside

House Democrats plan a study of potential turnpike lease.

HARRISBURG (AP) — The law that authorized tolls on the Pennsylvania stretch of Interstate 80 remains on the books, but signs are emerging that suggest the plan may be in trouble.

A leading advocate of the tolls, Sen. Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, has been working on what he calls a “hybrid model” as an alternative to Interstate 80 tolls. As the Senate’s top ranking Republican, Scarnati is in a prime position to undo the deal.

At the same time, Gov. Ed Rendell’s staff has been evaluating companies interested in paying billions for a long-term lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a deal that would repeal the I-80 toll law, called Act 44. His office said Friday that a request for bids will go out in the next couple of months and in the next several months Rendell hopes to submit the best offer to the Legislature.

Bills to repeal I-80 tolls are in the works, and on Thursday the House Democrats said they were commissioning a study of a potential turnpike lease in case they are forced to consider one.

“This is certainly, by all means, a great indication that the Legislature now — six, seven months after — finally realizes that tolling Interstate 80 and Act 44 are not good business,” said Travis J. Windle, communications director for U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., a leading I-80 toll opponent.

The tolling law, which Rendell signed in July, requires federal approval before the state can begin collecting fares on the interstate that bisects the northern half of the state. Together with higher turnpike tolls, it would generate nearly a billion dollars annually over the next decade for Pennsylvania’s crumbling highways and bridges and struggling mass transit agencies.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission would collect the tolls under a long-term deal with the state Transportation Department.

Rep. Joe Markosek, D-Allegheny, chairman of the Transportation Committee and an architect of the tolling plan, said he believes quiet support remains for the deal, despite months of public hearings during which people who live near I-80 have complained bitterly about the tolls.

“It passed relatively comfortably, and while there may be a few votes that have shifted, I don’t see a significant number that have shifted,” he said.

Markosek and other Democratic House leaders announced Thursday they were spending up to $75,000 on the study, a report due by the end of next month that will compare the benefits of a lease to I-80 tolls.

Turnpike Commission chairman Joe Brimmeier said Friday his agency continues to work with federal regulators to answer their questions about how the I-80 toll conversion will work. It is unclear when the U.S. government will decide whether to approve it, but Brimmeier remains convinced it is good policy.

“One of the major things that I don’t like about selling the turnpike and not tolling I-80 is I don’t think it’s fair to all of the existing customers along the turnpike,” he said. “It would mean that everybody in the southeast corner, the southwest corner, all along the south-central part of the state and the Northeastern Extension would be absorbing the entire cost of the PennDOT funding crisis. I don’t think that’s fair.”

Peterson does not concede that point, noting that the I-80 toll law also included stiff rate increases for turnpike tolls and arguing that a private company could make much of its profits by making the turnpike more efficient.

“This is a stone around Pennsylvania’s economic future, and every month that goes on, we’re going to have unrepairable damage,” he said.

One reason the I-80 toll plan emerged last summer was that many lawmakers said they had qualms about leasing the turnpike to a foreign company, a concern Scarnati has repeated recently. That issue seems unlikely to disappear, since the Rendell administration has fielded inquiries from groups that include foreign investors.

Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said “the international nature of financial institutions” makes it difficult to determine how much foreign ownership or influence there is among the 14 interested groups.