Could an aversion to higher gasoline taxes be costing us money and leaving some roads and bridges in poor condition?
Consider this math from Karl P. Sieg, vice president of the American Society of Civil Engineers' Pittsburgh section:
Various studies have placed the cost of damage to vehicles from rough roads at $300 to $400 per year. He has heard estimates as high as $750.
A 25-cent-per-gallon increase in the state gasoline tax (or "user fee" as Mr. Sieg calls it) would raise more than $1.5 billion. For a driver who goes 15,000 miles a year at 25 miles per gallon, the annual cost would be $150.
"In other words, for less than half what we pay each year to repair the damage to our cars caused by worn-out roads, we could fix the roads," he said. "Kind of a no-brainer, isn't it?"
The ASCE, with 6,000 statewide members, on Monday released its 2010 Report Card for Pennsylvania's Infrastructure, assigning dismal grades to the state's transportation network. It urged adoption of a dedicated, stable, long-term funding source for transportation improvements.
Possibilities include higher gasoline taxes and/or increased vehicle registration or license fees.
The report gave the state a D-plus overall, but D-minus for roads and public transit -- a decline from the grades in its first report card, issued in 2006.
The report comes as a reluctant Legislature decides how to tackle -- or possibly avoid -- the latest in a long and chronic series of transportation funding problems. Its 2007 solution, Act 44, has unraveled because of the Federal Highway Administration's refusal last month to allow tolling of Interstate 80.
The department has created a website detailing the consequences if no replacement funding is found. It lists 49 bridges in Allegheny County, carrying nearly 480,000 vehicles on a typical day, that won't be replaced or repaired and two highway resurfacing projects that won't get done, affecting another 86,300 drivers per day.
Port Authority could be forced to cut up to 20 percent of its service, PennDOT estimated. Statewide cuts to mass transit would force more traffic onto already congested roads, burning an additional 71 million gallons of fuel and add 38 hours per year to the average worker's commute time.
The Transportation Funding Crisis website is at www.dot7.state.pa.us/transportationfundingcrisis.
The House Transportation Committee will begin a series of statewide hearings on the funding problem this week. But the panel's chairman, Rep. Joe Markosek, D-Monroeville, recently said chances were "less than 50-50" that the Legislature would act this year because of fears of a voter backlash against higher fees or taxes.
Mr. Sieg noted that the Legislature last raised the gasoline fee by 6 cents in 1997, to its current 32.3 cents. Construction costs have risen about 55 percent since then, more than eating away the increased revenue.
The federal levy of 18.4 cents hasn't gone up since 1993 and its buying power has been eroded by 67 percent inflation in construction costs since then, leaving the federal Highway Trust Fund insolvent.
Supporters of increased transportation funding have reactivated the Keystone Transportation Funding Coalition and will hold a news conference in Harrisburg on Wednesday to call for "a comprehensive solution to Pennsylvania's transportation funding problem."
This time, in addition to highway contractors, trucking interests and transit providers, the coalition has been joined by AARP and groups representing health care providers, farmers, tourism interests, environmentalists and bike/pedestrian trail supporters, said founder George Wolff.
Hospitals lose volunteers when they can't take public transit or must travel congested roads to get to work, he said. AARP got involved because of complaints about a lack of shared-ride services for the elderly in central Pennsylvania.
He noted that a task force of the Pennsylvania State Transportation Advisory Committee recently calculated that the state has $3.5 billion annually in "highway and transit needs that currently cannot be addressed."
"If you don't do it, it's just going to cost more [later]," Mr. Wolff said.
Construction bids on economic stimulus projects came in 15 percent below estimates because contractors are hungry for work during the economic slump, he said. "Now would be the time to put money into our infrastructure. We'd get a lot more bite for the buck.
"Will [the Legislature] decide to do that? I can't say."
Jon Schmitz:
jschmitz@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1868.
