Pennsylvania State Representative Rick Geist (R-Altoona), Republican Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has unveiled a package of legislative proposals designed to address Pennsylvania’s transportation infrastructure funding crisis.
The Geist Transportation Funding and Reform Package includes 11 commonsense and fiscally responsible proposals aimed at closing what has become a more than $2 billion-a-year shortfall in transportation funding in the state. Geist unveiled his plan a day after the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) rejected Pennsylvania's application to toll I-80. The plan to toll I-80 and generate additional revenue to fund Pennsylvania’s transportation needs was the financial linchpin of the transportation funding plan that was enacted as Act 44 of 2007.
“We knew this day was coming ever since the day that Act 44 was enacted in July of 2007,” Geist said. “I realized at that time that the proposal to toll I-80 did not meet FHWA requirements. The alternatives I am presenting in this package are viable alternatives that have not gotten due consideration during the three years that the pending I-80 decision kept us in limbo.
“Now, it’s time to get on with the business of fully funding Pennsylvania’s transportation system,” Geist said. “I am introducing this plan in the hopes that the General Assembly can address this critical issue in a bipartisan fashion and with a sense of urgency. We can no longer afford to stand idly by as our transportation infrastructure deteriorates.”
The Geist Transportation Funding and Reform Package includes the following proposals:
• Public-private-partnership enabling legislation;
• Motor license fund phase-out of state police funding;
• More design-build projects;
• Tolling I-95;
• Extend the current level of Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission annual payments to PennDOT for three more years;
• Add two Turnpike commissioners to be appointed by the House of Representatives majority and minority leader;
• Develop a pilot program that would contract out highway maintenance;
• Adjust percentage and ceiling of the oil company franchise tax;
• Increase local transit match to 25%;
• Add local tax options; and
• The passage of a House resolution in support of a vehicle-miles tax study.
