Two lawmakers from W. Pa. act to ban I-80 tolls

Two congressmen from rural Pennsylvania moved this week to block tolls on Interstate 80, threatening to scuttle the new state transportation-funding plan signed last week by Gov. Rendell.

U.S. Reps. John E. Peterson and Phil English, both Republicans from northwestern Pennsylvania, amended a transportation appropriations bill to prohibit the use of federal funds to install tolls on I-80. The appropriations bill was approved by the House on Tuesday and now goes to the Senate.

"We are not going to stand by while Harrisburg raids western Pennsylvania travelers and picks truckers' pockets to prop up Philadelphia's mass-transit system," English said in a statement yesterday.

Rendell responded by vowing to resume efforts to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike as a way to raise money for transportation projects in case I-80 tolls were prohibited.

Rendell said yesterday that he would start a process to receive bids for the turnpike. Those bids then could be presented to the state legislature.

The plan to impose tolls on I-80 is a linchpin in the new state transportation-funding law. The plan to provide about $950 million a year in new funding for highways and mass transit depends on future toll increases on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, anticipated new tolls on I-80, and 4.4 percent of the revenue from the state sales tax.

The imposition of tolls on I-80 would require Federal Highway Administration approval, since the road was built largely with federal funds to be part of the free Interstate system.

Supporters of the state transportation-funding plan said they would take the fight to the U.S. Senate, seeking to remove the amendment.

"We will work as hard as we can to present the facts to Congress in an effort to remove this harmful and shortsighted amendment from the final appropriations bill," Rendell said.

He said the House-passed bill was a "serious setback" because it would delay the imposition of tolls on I-80. State officials had hoped to have tolls in place in about three years.

Rendell said he was "extraordinarily" disappointed that members of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation had not called him to discuss the issue beforehand. He said that had they done so, he would have explained the state's intention to find a way to design the system so Pennsylvanians who traveled short distances on I-80 would not have to pay tolls.

"It's hardly a done deal," said Bob Caton, an aide to State Rep. Keith McCall (D., Carbon), chief sponsor of the state transportation plan. "We've reached out to our senators in Washington, and they both realize how important this is for the entire state."

Caton said that 80 percent of the traffic on I-80 was from out of state, passing through Pennsylvania without paying for the damage it inflicted on the highway.

State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.), a prime architect of the state transportation-funding plan, "has already talked to the people in Washington, I believe, . . . and there is a pretty good chance that it will be stripped out in the conference committee," said Gary Tuma, spokesman for Fumo.

A spokesman for Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Larry Smar, said: "We're reviewing it at the moment." He said action was unlikely before September.

In the U.S. House, the amendment was approved by a voice vote, said Travis J. Windle, spokesman for Peterson.

Both Peterson and English voted against the appropriations bill that contained their amendment. The bill (H.R. 3074) passed, 268-153.

Windle said Peterson "voted against final passage out of a sense of fiscal responsibility . . . he felt it was just too big and bloated."