A state legislator from Centre County wants to blunt the impact of converting Interstate 80 to a toll road by offering a break to state residents who use the E-Z Pass electronic toll-paying system.

The trouble is, his plan will leave a hole in the state budget and he has no proposals for filling it.

Rep. H. Scott Conklin is a Democrat who voted against Act 44, the controversial plan to fund mass transit and highway and bridge repairs by raising tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and adding them to I-80. He proposes an income tax credit so, for every dollar state residents would spend on any toll road in Pennsylvania, provided they use E-Z Pass, they could subtract a dollar off their income tax bill, up to $500.

Rep. Conklin sees this as a way to make the tolling of I-80 less burdensome on residents who live along the 311-mile, east-west corridor and use it regularly. His tax break, though, would extend to any Pennsylvanian paying tolls with E-Z Pass on any state toll road, not just I-80.

Rep. Conklin argues that the beauty of his plan is that it won't take any money away from the transportation funding. But it will leave a hole on the revenue side that currently is being filled by the income tax. Rep. Conklin says he hasn't calculated how much revenue would be lost as a result of his proposal, but he expects it would be negligible. How can he know the answer if he hasn't done the math? And how can that possibly be true when he's talking about a dollar-for-dollar swap off a resident's income tax bill, not income? All of which brings us back to our earlier arguments on Act 44.

The law allows a maximum of 10 tolling stations, and it could be fewer, so many of the local motorists that Rep. Conklin is worried about still may be able to drive for free.

And Gov. Rendell's flawed alternative to Act 44 is leasing the turnpike to a private operator. If that happens, I-80 and its environs likely will be bombarded by truckers fleeing the higher tolls that would be demanded by a private operator.

Pennsylvania has finally settled on a method of funding its roads, bridges and mass transit systems. Rep. Conklin's plan to twist it into a tax break isn't going to help.