Raising taxes and fees does not equal anticipated additional revenues.


Traffic on the Pennsylvania Turnpike dropped sharply last month compared to the previous year, cutting short an expected revenue boost from a 25 percent toll increase that took effect Jan. 4.

In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee in Harrisburg this week, Turnpike Commission Vice Chairman Tim Carson said toll revenue increased by only 10.9 percent in January, compared to the same month a year ago.

About 13.5 million vehicles used the highway system last month, compared to 14.4 million in January 2008, a decrease of 5.9 percent, said commission spokesman Bill Capone. By comparison, a 42.5 percent toll hike in August 2004 came with a 1-percent increase in traffic and a 42 percent increase in revenue, he said.

The most significant decline last month was in commercial traffic, which makes up a small fraction of the volume but nearly half of its toll revenue. That fell 14.3 percent, from nearly 2 million vehicles to 1.7 million.

"Given what's going on with the economy, you have less manufacturing taking place, less materials to ship and less trucks trying to move goods," Capone said. He said both traffic and toll revenue have decreased since the beginning of the fiscal year in June, compared to the previous year.

The higher tolls might have diverted some traffic to Interstate 80 -- another reason to reconsider getting federal permission to exact tolls on I-80, Carson told the Appropriations Committee.

"It makes the whole system more efficient as a revenue-generating machine ... because the diversion alternative is not there," Carson said.

PennDOT spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick said the most recent data for I-80 traffic was from 2007, so he could not tell if that highway saw an increase in use following the toll hike.

In September, the U.S. Department of Transportation rejected Pennsylvania's application to be one of three states in a pilot program to collect tolls on federal highways because of how the state planned to spend the money. That took away almost half of the revenue expected from the state's 2007 transportation bill -- called Act 44 -- a part of which called for charging tolls on I-80.

Without that added revenue, the turnpike's payments to PennDOT would fall from $900 million in 2010 to $450 million in 2011.

Under Act 44, the turnpike still is expected to generate more revenue for the state, but the troubled economy means that might be less than anticipated, Carson said.

Carson and Secretary of Transportation Allen Biehler both testified Thursday that the pending re-authorization of the federal transportation bill, which expires in September, might represent another opportunity to get I-80 tolls under consideration.

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