I just called my Representative. You’re thinking I was complaining about something, and you’re wrong. This is why I called:
An amendment prohibiting federal funds from being used to toll Interstate 80 was attached to a transportation bill that passed 268-153 Tuesday night in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. John Peterson, R-Pleasantville, and Rep. Phil English, R-Erie, offered the amendment Tuesday to an annual transportation funding bill, Travis J. Windle, communications director for Peterson, said Tuesday night.
Peterson’s my Representative.
Windle said states rely heavily on federal funding for transportation projects such as tolling interstates, and he said Peterson is confident this will be a roadblock for the I-80 toll project if the appropriations bill is signed by President Bush. Without federal funding, the state will have to find other ways of funding the toll booths.
Gov. Ed Rendell’s office could not be reached for comment Tuesday night on what the amendment may mean for the plan to put tolls on I-80.
But state Sen. Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, said the possible lack of federal funding may not hinder the efforts to toll I-80 because federal funds could go toward construction and maintenance of roads while state funding would pay for the proposed booths.
Corman, who opposes tolling I-80, said he applauds the congressman’s efforts to stop the proposed tolling, but said the commonwealth can use the federal money for other reasons and use profits from tolls to build the toll booths.
“The governor and state legislature’s proposal, taking I-80 from PennDOT and giving it to the bloated Turnpike Commission to peppering tolls across rural Pennsylvania, was a terrible decision and would cause irreversible economic damage,” Peterson said in a news release.
Rendell “would rather tax rural folks through tolls to subsidize Philadelphia’s failed SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) program,” Peterson said in a press release.
Peterson, who is a member of the appropriations committee, has opposed the tolls because he says they will tax drivers and businesses in rural Pennsylvania while more funding would go to urban mass transit.
Though the bill does not directly allocate revenue from tolls on I-80 toward urban mass transit, Windle said “all tolls would create more revenue to go to SEPTA by creating alternative revenue to pay for roads and bridges.”
“My boss, his utmost concern is that too much of the money is being sent to mass transit and that rural America is being left behind,” Windle said.
Peterson’s district includes Centre and Clearfield counties, among others, and more of I-80 than any other congressional district in the commonwealth.
For the amendment to gain approval, Windle said the Senate also will need to pass an appropriations bill, and then both the Senate and the House appropriations bills will go to conference committees to work out the differences. One appropriations bill then goes back to the respective chambers and is passed before being sent to President Bush to be signed or vetoed.
Even if Corman is right, and even if the amendment fails, Peterson deserves a round of applause for doing what he can to put a stop to Rendell’s crap. And speaking of crap, Fast Eddie isn’t happy that Peterson and Windle have tossed a wrench in his little extortion game.
Gov. Ed Rendell, angry over a congressional amendment
BWAAAAAAAAA! I WANT MY MOMMY! BWAAAAAAAAA!
