By Dick Miller
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: PA Gov. Tom Corbett could bull through a transportation funding bill when the General Assembly returns to Harrisburg in late September, but two outcomes are certain.
The revenue bill will kick some part of the problem to a future legislature and, maybe, governor. Second, the success he claims will hardly lift his poll ratings.
Corbett misplayed this issue almost from day one.
In 2010 Attorney-General Corbett parlayed the prosecution of several high-profile Democrat legislators into a run for governor. Corbett’s big campaign promise was to not raise taxes.
His predecessor, Ed Rendell, created an untenable disruption to the funding of maintenance to PA roads and bridges.
Rendell was certain the Obama administration would permit the tolling of Interstate 80 and other federally partially-funded roads. As a temporary source of funding, he had the PA Turnpike make huge borrowings and send the money over to PennDOT to maintain non-turnpike roads and bridges.
The Obama administration denied permission to toll roads late in the Rendell administration. Continued borrowing by the Turnpike would have jeopardized its financial standing.
In Rendell’s inimitable style, he began traveling the country preaching for increased investment in infrastructure. Meanwhile he left the problem in this state to his successor.
While Rendell is at least partially to blame (Remainder going to the legislature, of course.), Corbett cannot deny he knew the problem when he ran for Governor.
Rather than break his “no-tax pledge” the first day in office, Corbett hand-picked a study commission. This well-intended group took a year to recommend that the state needed $3.5 billion in new funding to bring the roads and bridges up to standard.
Then he took a year to “study” the “study commission” report. Earlier this year, his third in the executive mansion, Corbett proposed that a ceiling be removed from the wholesale tax on gasoline. Experts predicted this would hike prices at the pump by 25-to-28 cents a gallon and only produce about $1.9 billion annually.
By his reasoning, Corbett had put the two years to good use. He claimed that assessing the additional tax on gasoline wholesalers was not the same as raising taxes on the citizens. This balloon never cleared the dandelions.
Transportation funding became part of a lengthy and difficult list that includes liquor privatization, pension reform and outsourcing the state lottery overseas. To no surprise, Corbett’s batting average in the final month of budget negotiations was “Zero-for-June.”
Republicans who control the House of Representatives said they were serious about no new taxes, Corbett be damned! Then House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) tried to engineer his team’s support for transportation funding in exchange for the Republicans in the Senate backing liquor privatization.
Democrats need Turzai to open his mouth more often. Last year, he was filmed bragging the Corbett administration’s ram through of new voter identification procedures would enable Mitt Romney to carry Pennsylvania.
Republicans in the Senate not only supported more funds for transportation, but actually added hikes in fines, driver and vehicle registration to push the package to $2.5 billion. The bill actually passed the Senate 45-5, a rare example of bi-partisanship.
Democrats, particularly in the House, and organized labor also did not rise to meet the challenge. The fear of losing union jobs in the privatization of liquor stores outweighed the higher gain of jobs created by increased transportation funding. Despite current versions of transportation funding impacting the poor, Democrats have offered no comprehensive alternative.
The AFL-CIO could have rounded up enough Democrat votes in the House to outweigh the Republican nay-saying Tea Baggers, but didn’t.
BOTTOM LINE: Pennsylvania is one of a decreasing number of states that continues to rely on gasoline taxes for transportation. By 2025, new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. will have to average 54.5 miles per gallon of gasoline, up from the current 30.8 mpg. In a decade we will be right back at the table talking about transportation funding.
