BCT Editorial – 7/14/10

This page was last updated on July 14, 2010.

Tolls or taxes; Editorial; Beaver County Times; July 14, 2010.

The editorial concludes with, “There’s no way around it. This ad revenue would be a minor player, at best, when it comes to meeting state’s short-, medium- and long-term transportation needs. That kind of money can only come from two sources - tolls or taxes.”

The editorial fails to note PA could have placed a toll on I-80 and other interstates as long as the tolls would have been used only for the “care and feeding” of the interstates as required by federal law. That wasn’t enough for PA, however. The Governor, General Assembly, and the Times wanted I-80 tolls to be used to transfer wealth from I-80 drivers to users of other roads and government-owned and run bus systems like BCTA and PAT. There is more info in my critique of “Tough calls.”