by KYW's vice president and general manager David Yadgaroff
Pennsylvania’s highway and mass transit funding future is starting to act like a squirrel in traffic. It’s skittering witlessly between a plan already signed into law that would put toll booths on Interstate 80 and a competing plan to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
With legislators in Harrisburg divided and the governor now pumping up the leasing concept (see related news story), foes of both are encouraged, while supporters of each are bewildered.
At stake is the future funding for SEPTA and other mass transit agencies, and the maintenance of Pennsylvania’s highways and bridges.
As the rhetoric heats up, both funding concepts are becoming gridlocked and in danger of plunging into a fiscal sink hole.
The problem is aggravated by the fact that the federal government has not yet agreed -- and may never agree -- to tolls on I-80. There’s an equally serious question about whether the governor’s projected income from a turnpike lease is realistic.
If these are the best options and both have pitfalls, then common sense dictates getting fully behind the I-80 concept already signed into law by this same governor just last year, and launching the turnpike alternative only if the I-80 plan fails.
To submit a comment or reply to this editorial, send an e-mail to yadgaroff@KYW.com.
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