Letters: Lack of leadership driving Pa. Turnpike's debt crisis

ISSUE | PENNSYLVANIA TURNPIKE

Lack of leadership driving debt crisis

It was disappointing, but not surprising, to read about the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission's crippling debt ("Auditor: Turnpike finances in decline," Wednesday). The fact that the state legislature and governor enacted a law in 2007 requiring annual payments from collected tolls and turnpike reserves to help fund PennDot is a blatant example of our elected officials ducking the difficult fiscal decisions they are elected to make.

Leadership in government often requires tough choices, such as raising taxes - or user fees - to fund infrastructure improvements. Today's elected officials, locally and nationally, demonstrate a pathetic lack of courage in failing to responsibly provide for funding that does not steal from the future.

I am reminded of the observation by the late Sen. Russell Long, a Louisiana Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee: "Most people have the same philosophy about taxes: Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax the fellow behind the tree."

In the current circumstance, turnpike drivers are the guys behind the tree.

|John A. McQuaid, Elverson