HARRISBURG -- The top Republican on the state House Transportation Committee says he's not surprised by last week's federal decision to deny Pennsylvania permission to put tolls on Interstate 80.

"We knew this day was coming ever since we enacted Act 44 in July 2007," Rep. Rick Geist of Blair County said.

That law raised tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and tried to impose tolls for the first time on I-80, a 311-mile highway across northern Pennsylvania from Ohio to New Jersey.

But the Federal Highway Administration said all the money from I-80 tolls had to be used for maintaining I-80, while the state planned to use some of it for other road and bridge projects.

"The proposal to toll I-80 didn't meet federal highway requirements," said Mr. Geist, a longtime legislator from Altoona. "Now it's time to get on with the business of fully funding Pennsylvania's transportation system."

The loss of I-80 tolls has blown a $472 million hole in state funds for road and bridge repairs and for operating public transit systems in the fiscal year that starts July 1. With the I-80 tolls, there would have been $922 million available for transportation work in fiscal 2010-11. But now, with just the higher turnpike tolls, there is only $450 million -- $250 million for transit and $200 million for roads and bridges.

Gov. Ed Rendell, who strongly disagreed with the federal decision, will soon call the Legislature into a special session to come up with ideas to fill that $472 million hole.

Mr. Geist has come up with his own list of ideas. One is a major change in the way the state pays for the state police. Three-fourths of that funding, or $533 million in fiscal 2010-11, comes from the state's Motor License Fund, fueled by gasoline taxes and vehicle fees.

Mr. Geist wants to use the Motor License Fund "for its intended purpose, which is maintenance and improvement of highways and bridges."

He would pay for state police out of the state's $27.8 billion general fund. But using $533 million from the general fund to pay for state police would almost certainly necessitate an increase in state taxes -- or else slashing some department's existing appropriation. Both pose serious political risks to legislators, especially in a re-election year.

Mr. Geist said he would ease the blow by shifting the state police costs to the general fund in a gradual fashion -- over a 10-year period, in increments of $50 million per year.

He also has another controversial proposal, which may not go over so well in the Philadelphia area. He wants to seek federal permission to put tolls on the 50 miles of Interstate 95 in southeast Pennsylvania, and use all that revenue to maintain that road. Doing so, he said, would resolve the problem the feds had with the I-80 toll request.

He is also renewing his call for creating "public private partnerships," deals between state government and private companies, to rebuild and maintain some roads or bridges. Under such contracts, the state would still maintain ownership of the asset, but "an infusion of private sector capital accelerates the maintenance, improvement and expansion" of roads and bridges, he said.

This is similar to the idea of leasing all or part of the turnpike to a private company, which would collect the tolls and repair the road, an idea that Mr. Rendell has proposed in the past but which has faced strong opposition in the Legislature.

Mr. Geist also wants local officials to shoulder more of the mass transit costs, which may not sit well with Allegheny County officials. The state now provides 87 percent of the cost of mass transit statewide. Mr. Geist is suggesting a split of 75 percent state, 25 percent local. He said the national average is 65 percent state and 35 percent local.

But he is also proposing giving counties new taxing options, such as a local sales tax, an earned income tax or a local realty transfer tax.

He also has an idea to give state officials more time to adopt a new transportation funding formula. As of now, road/bridges/transit funding will drop from $900 million a year to $450 million on July 1, which doesn't give the Legislature much time to develop funds to replace the rejected I-80 tolls.

Act 44 of 2007 authorized the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to borrow $2.5 billion over three years -- from July 2007 to June 2010 -- to pay for transportation work. That borrowing authority runs out June 30, but Mr. Geist would like to renew it for three more years.

That would give state transportation officials the money needed to repair several thousand structurally deficient bridges and repave hundreds of miles of ailing roads, as well as adequately fund Port Authority of Allegheny County, SEPTA in Philadelphia and smaller transit agencies in the state.

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