HARRISBURG—On
Tuesday, Governor Ed Rendell unveiled his plans to solve the
transportation funding crisis in Pennsylvania. The Governor proposed
instituting a gross oil profits tax to shore up Pennsylvania’s public
transit systems. Oil companies have been some of the most successful at
hiding their profits despite the record revenues they have enjoyed in
recent years.
“We
applaud the Governor for his bold leadership on funding transit, as
well as for his continued support for closing tax loopholes” said Jim
Swoyer, a Public Interest Advocate with the Pennsylvania Public
Interest Research Group. For years, PennPIRG has been a leading
advocate for combined reporting, a comprehensive way to close tax
loopholes. “Oil companies extract dramatic profits from Pennsylvania,
so it is only fair that they reinvest some of this money back into the
Commonwealth,” continued Swoyer. “Using the money for public transit
makes sense. Transit ridership offsets some of the damage excessive gas
consumption does to our environment, and helps relieve the stress on
our public roads.”
Governor
Rendell also proposed privatizing the Pennsylvania turnpike to generate
additional money for roads and bridges. PennPIRG is concerned that a
turnpike sell-off would harm the long term financial health of the
Commonwealth, while ceding public control of transportation planning.
In other states where this has been attempted, private investors have
been given wide latitude to institute dramatic toll increases.
“The
Pennsylvania Turnpike should be managed for the public interest, not
private profit,” said Swoyer, “This is a major public resource, and
decisions on what maintenance needs to be done, what safety standards
must be observed, and what tolls to charge should all be made based on
Pennsylvania’s needs, not a company’s profit margin.”
PennPIRG
stressed that any potential deal must guarantee public participation,
transparency, and high standards for safety and maintenance. One of the
most significant problems is the inherent impossibility of forecasting
a state’s transportation needs years into the future. For example,
transportation technology and safety and maintenance standards are
constantly evolving. For privatization to make sense for Pennsylvania,
any agreement must contain a provision allowing the Commonwealth to
reassess the deal in light of the public’s changing needs. Otherwise,
Pennsylvania could be stuck with an outdated transportation policy for
decades. In order to ensure that the Commonwealth will not be stuck
with a bad deal, these and other conditions must be reflected in any
authorization-to-negotiate law that the General Assembly enacts.
The Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group (PennPIRG) is a
non-profit consumer advocacy group representing 3,500 citizen members
across the state. PennPIRG has offices in Philadelphia and
Harrisburg.
