Transportation News

HARRISBURG—On Tuesday, Governor Ed Rendell unveiled his plans to solve the transportation funding crisis in Pennsylvania. The Governor proposed instituting a gross oil profits tax to shore up Pennsylvania’s public transit systems. Oil companies have been some of the most successful at hiding their profits despite the record revenues they have enjoyed in recent years.

“We applaud the Governor for his bold leadership on funding transit, as well as for his continued support for closing tax loopholes” said Jim Swoyer, a Public Interest Advocate with the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group. For years, PennPIRG has been a leading advocate for combined reporting, a comprehensive way to close tax loopholes. “Oil companies extract dramatic profits from Pennsylvania, so it is only fair that they reinvest some of this money back into the Commonwealth,” continued Swoyer. “Using the money for public transit makes sense. Transit ridership offsets some of the damage excessive gas consumption does to our environment, and helps relieve the stress on our public roads.”

Governor Rendell also proposed privatizing the Pennsylvania turnpike to generate additional money for roads and bridges. PennPIRG is concerned that a turnpike sell-off would harm the long term financial health of the Commonwealth, while ceding public control of transportation planning. In other states where this has been attempted, private investors have been given wide latitude to institute dramatic toll increases.

“The Pennsylvania Turnpike should be managed for the public interest, not private profit,” said Swoyer, “This is a major public resource, and decisions on what maintenance needs to be done, what safety standards must be observed, and what tolls to charge should all be made based on Pennsylvania’s needs, not a company’s profit margin.”

PennPIRG stressed that any potential deal must guarantee public participation, transparency, and high standards for safety and maintenance. One of the most significant problems is the inherent impossibility of forecasting a state’s transportation needs years into the future. For example, transportation technology and safety and maintenance standards are constantly evolving. For privatization to make sense for Pennsylvania, any agreement must contain a provision allowing the Commonwealth to reassess the deal in light of the public’s changing needs. Otherwise, Pennsylvania could be stuck with an outdated transportation policy for decades. In order to ensure that the Commonwealth will not be stuck with a bad deal, these and other conditions must be reflected in any authorization-to-negotiate law that the General Assembly enacts.

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The Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group (PennPIRG) is a non-profit consumer advocacy group representing 3,500 citizen members across the state.  PennPIRG has offices in Philadelphia and Harrisburg.  For more information, visit www.pennpirg.org