WASHINGTON -- A delegation of Pennsylvania lawmakers yesterday urged officials from the Federal Highway Administration not to allow the state to toll Interstate 80.

The application by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to manage the roadway is still pending with the highway administration, and lawmakers from along the 311-mile east-west roadway tried to turn up the heat against the proposal.

Foes of the tolling say it would stymie economic development along the interstate's exits -- as drivers on toll roads won't get off and back on.

"[If] we put tolls on Interstate 80 we might as well just put signs on either end, in Ohio and New Jersey, detouring prosperity around Pennsylvania -- and that's wrong," said U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Centre, who was joined by U.S. House colleagues Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Erie, and Paul Kanjorski, D-Luzerne County, as well as 14 members of the General Assembly who traveled from Harrisburg for the day.

Under Act 44, passed in 2007 to try to solve Pennsylvania's transportation shortfall, the state plans to toll I-80 to raise money for highways, bridges and public transit. The Turnpike Commission is scheduled to pay PennDOT $900 million by July. If tolling is implemented, that figure will increase by 2.5 percent per year thereafter. If not, it will plummet to $450 million.

"The state has already decided about this," said Turnpike Commission spokesman Carl DeFebo. "Certainly there is some opposition, but there are not really any good choices about how we're going to fund the transportation budget deficit in Pennsylvania."

When asked what should be done to recoup the money, Ms. Dahlkemper said, "there's many other options ... go back to the drawing board."

"Tolling Interstate 80 would substantially harm, if not destroy, our ability to maintain and attract jobs in our district," state Rep. Matt Gabler, R-Du Bois, said after the meeting. "It is so important that it's worth taking the trip and missing a few votes and taking the political hit for that if we need to, because this is where our constituents demanded us to be."

Lawmakers raised concerns with the federal officials about increasing the scope of the Turnpike Commission while the state attorney general is investigating it for possible corruption. Mr. DeFebo responded that no formal charges have been levied and the Turnpike has a 70-year record of effectiveness.

The application is for the final spot in a federal pilot program that's designed to help fund improvements to roads that can get the funding no other way.

A spokeswoman for the highway administration said Pennsylvania's application remains under review and there is no time line for completion.

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