Smoother road: Corbett's panel has good fixes for transportation
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Gov. Tom Corbett's Transportation Funding Advisory Commission, faced with finding billions of dollars without raising the gasoline tax, has emerged with a comprehensive, realistic plan to fund road and bridges projects.
It's not free, but it's fair.
The starting point for the 40-member panel was that Pennsylvania spends $3.5 billion a year less than necessary to maintain its transportation system, which includes 5,310 structurally deficient bridges and 8,000 miles of highway in poor condition. If implemented, the panel's recommendations would be worth $2.7 billion.
The largest sum would come from removing a cap on the tax on wholesale gasoline and diesel fuel. Distributors pay the oil company franchise tax on the wholesale price of fuel, but the tax is applied only to the first $1.25 per gallon. The average wholesale price last year, however, was $2.147 a gallon. The panel proposed a five-year phaseout of the cap, after which the tax would reap an extra $1.3 billion annually.
Although some expect the increase to be passed directly to motorists, state officials say distributors typically do not transfer all of the burden to consumers. Nonetheless, the panel did include that presumption in its calculations, which said the average motorist, driving 12,000 miles per year in a vehicle with average fuel efficiency, would pay $22 more in year one and $101 when the cap is completely removed.
Other costs definitely would be borne by drivers.
License, registration and other fees would be adjusted for inflation that has occurred since the rates were last changed. That means the cost of vehicle registration would go from $36 a year (the rate set in 1997) to $49.
In proposing higher fees for the services, the panel also recommended changes in how long registrations and licenses would be valid, which would save in administrative costs and be more convenient for motorists (although require a bigger payment up front). The panel suggested registration every two years, cutting paperwork in half and saving the state $5 million a year. If driver's licenses were valid for eight years instead of four, as proposed, the state would save $500,000 a year.
The panel also suggested that cars under two years old be exempted from state inspections, saving drivers $24 million, and that the little stickers that affix to license plates be eliminated, saving the state $1 million.
Compared to the rates in nearby states, Pennsylvania still would be a bargain. When drivers consider the cost of repairs from hitting a gaping pothole or taking a 10-mile detour to get around a bridge that's closed for safety, the proposed rates start to sound even more reasonable.
The advisory panel has done a good job of setting an agenda for funding transportation. Now Gov. Corbett should get behind the recommendations and persuade lawmakers to move them forward as soon as they return to the Capitol in September.
First Published July 26, 2011 12:00 am
