Matthew J. Brouillette

Like it or not, the tolling of highways will be part of how we fund our roads and bridges in the future. That said, there are two good reasons why the plan to erect toll booths on Interstate-80 should be rejected. Tolls are appropriate because they are imposed directly upon travelers for their use of roads. However, the plan to toll I-80 represents more than a toll. It is also a tax on drivers because more than $160 million in toll dollars from the highway will be funneled to mass transit systems, primarily in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Taxing drivers in the northern tier to subsidize mass transit users in the southeast and southwest is bad public policy. An even stronger reason to reject the I-80 tolling plan, however, is that the highway would be handed over to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC). The PTC has justly earned its reputation as a haven for patronage, nepotism, inefficiency and corruption.