Looking beyond I-80

Looking beyond I-80

The U.S Department of Transportation gave Pennsylvania the only fair answer that it could: The state shouldn’t expect U.S. taxpayers to turn over a federal asset so that Pennsylvania can turn it into a cash cow.

That’s not exactly what the federal regulators said, but that’s exactly what Pennsylvania was trying to do in seeking to take control of I-80 and turn it into a toll road. The state planned to use the tolls it collected to fund $1 billion worth of road and mass transit projects across the state.

Now, apparently, Gov. Ed Rendell will fall back on his plan to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike — the first modern turnpike built in the United States — to the highest bidder. Leasing the turnpike for 75 years to a private operator would produce an up-front payment of about $12.8 billion. The state could then tap that fund for about $1 billion a year to finance its transportation plan.

Scanning the options

Other options mentioned are resubmitting the I-80 proposal to Washington or enacting additional taxes on gasoline or oil company profits.

The one option that is always conspicuously absent is finding a way to do more with less.

If a private company can offer almost $13 billion for the turnpike and plan to operate it at a profit over the next 75 years, why can’t the state find a way to operate the turnpike more efficiently? What does a private company know about running a toll road that Pennsylvania — the turnpike pioneer — has forgotten?

Selling old toll roads to private companies or turning free highways into toll roads are seen as the easy answer to Pennsylvania’s financial problems. And that pursuit of the easy answer is a problem in itself, and one that is not unique to Pennsylvania.

Politicians prefer to look for more outside revenue before looking inward at how they have allowed government to become bloated.