New try to sink I-80 toll proposal
Legislation is planned in Congress to redirect the money to aid outsourced workers.
In what is emerging as a battle between urban and rural Pennsylvania, two Republican congressmen from the northwestern part of the state unveiled legislation yesterday they said would block tollbooths along I-80.
"We are not going to stand idly by and watch Harrisburg politicians pick the pockets of western Pennsylvanians to prop up Philadelphia's mass transit system," said U.S. Rep. Phil English.
English, of Erie, and U.S. Rep. John Peterson, of Pleasantville, Venango County, have crafted legislation they call the "Free Highway Protection Act of 2007" that would redirect money raised from new tolls on federal interstates to a program that helps workers whose jobs are moved overseas.
That would eliminate the financial incentive for Harrisburg to place an estimated 10 tollbooths along the 300-plus miles of I-80 in Pennsylvania between the New Jersey and Ohio borders.
"Rural Pennsylvania should not be responsible for subsidizing mismanaged and inefficient mass transit programs like SEPTA," Peterson said.
Gov. Rendell quickly called the legislation misguided.
"If they persist, the provincial actions of two congressmen could doom our citizens to decades more of riding on deteriorating roads and bridges, and delay economic growth by driving away business investment," the governor said.
Without the money from the I-80 tolls, Rendell said, road and bridge projects across the state could go unfunded, including more than three dozen in the part of Northwestern Pennsylvania represented by Peterson and English.
Under a state law enacted this month, Harrisburg plans to use toll revenue, along with other new funding sources, to infuse $750 million this year into highway and bridge projects, and to bail out struggling mass transit agencies across the state.
The two congressmen said they planned to introduce legislation this week that could effectively nullify the funding plan.
It is the second attempt the two have waged to block the tollbooths. Last week, in a move that caught many off guard, including the Democratic governor, the congressmen successfully inserted an amendment into the U.S. House transportation funding bill to bar the use of federal money to place tolls on I-80.
Democratic leaders have indicated the language will be stripped from the federal transportation funding bill when it goes to a House-Senate conference committee.
Still, a peeved Rendell responded last week by vowing to revive his transportation plan of leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike to private interests - an idea, he said, that would generate $1.5 billion annually in new funding.
He abandoned the effort in negotiations with state lawmakers in a protracted budget fight this month.
The latest legislation also has a tough road on Capitol Hill in a Congress controlled by Democrats.
"We recognize that it is going to be a fight," English said, "but we are committed to keeping a toll-free I-80, even if we have to throw ourselves under the state government's steamroller."
U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, a Philadelphia Democrat, yesterday accused English and Peterson of trying to use the issue to embarrass the governor. And he chastised his two congressional colleagues for fighting against a plan that would benefit transportation needs in both rural areas and urban centers.
"I think it's a shame that we aren't working together for a better state," he said, noting that he has voted for legislation friendly to coal interests. "I haven't seen a coal mine in Philadelphia," he said.
Nonetheless, Brady predicted that, in the end, the attempts by the two GOP congressmen would amount to a little more than a temporary detour.
"I-80 will be tolled," he said.