PA Turnpike Commission ‘on the Path to Bankruptcy,’ Auditor General Says
The Pennsylvania Turnpike is headed down the “road to ruin,” state officials warn, TribLive reported. It’s not corruption or mismanagement, but rather Act 44 of 2007 that requires the commission to pay PennDOT $450 million a year for mass transit that has left the nation’s first superhighway deeply in debt despite annual toll increases. Those hikes have driven the toll for a car ride across the turnpike to $56.50 and resulted in a decline in turnpike traffic as drivers sought out less-costly alternatives. Last year, the Tribune-Review found that tolls from commercial traffic that made up 44.55 percent of turnpike toll revenue in 2009 had fallen to 42.71 percent in 2017. DePasquale warned that a pending federal court case filed by truckers who claim diverting tolls to PennDOT is a violation of interstate commerce laws exacerbates what is already a serious threat to the turnpike. Should the truckers prevail and the court rule Act 44 a violation of federal law, the results could be catastrophic for both the state and the Turnpike Commission, he warned. There’s little question, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said, that Act 44 has been the impetus for 11 consecutive years of toll increases. “Before Act 44, there were only five toll hikes in the 64 years. Now it happens every year, with no end in sight,” he said.