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I-80 opposition relies heavily on grassroots

The Alliance to Stop I-80 Tolling has a question for you: When is the last time you called your lawmakers to voice opposition to interstate tolling in Pennsylvania?

If the answer is “not for a while” or “never,” opponents of I-80 tolling are asking you to step it up. After all, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the Federal Highway Administration is close to making a decision about whether to allow the roadway to be tolled.

Alliance member Ed Edwards, president of the Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce, says OOIDA and other groups involved in the opposition can make a difference in what some are calling the eleventh hour.

“I think right up until the day that Secretary Ray LaHood makes his decision, the average person can reach out to him and send him a letter, a fax, an e-mail, whatever vehicle they can use, or even flood the U.S. Department of Transportation with phone calls and tell them that this is an awful idea that Pennsylvania has advanced,” Edwards told Land Line Magazine on Thursday, Jan. 21.

Since 2007, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has pushed for tolls on I-80 to fulfill financial requirements of a state law known as Act 44. That law gave control of the interstate to the commission and requires the commission to pay hundreds of millions of dollars each year to the state DOT to fund statewide transportation including mass transit.

Edwards says Act 44 created a “regional solution to a statewide problem,” and says the I-80 corridors will lose businesses that cannot absorb the extra cost.

“What happened in 2007 was a travesty,” he said. “(Lawmakers) were told by the governor that he wanted a funding bill. This bill was given to them … and within 10 days and without so much as a hearing, it was approved.”

The alliance includes chambers of commerce, economic development groups, mayors, business leaders, and state and federal representatives mostly in the I-80 corridor.

DOT Secretary LaHood met earlier this week with four members of Congress from Pennsylvania – Republican Glenn Thompson and Democrats Paul Kanjorski, Kathy Dahlkemper and Chris Carney – to get a gauge of the opposition and to say a decision was coming soon.

Edwards says Thompson and the others are on board with his alliance and so are a number of state legislators. The goal is to convince the rest of the Legislature that I-80 tolls will be bad for the commonwealth.

“Let’s hope that if it is declined by the Federal Highway Administration and the secretary of transportation, Pennsylvania legislators accept some responsibility and start looking at our infrastructure problems more seriously than they did in 2007,” Edwards said.

OOIDA Director of Legislative Affairs Mike Joyce says he is trying to gauge the meeting between LaHood and the four U.S. representatives.

“There would be considerable fallout should a decision be made to move forward in the effort to toll I-80,” Joyce said.

“When you’re looking around that room and three of the four members of Congress that are voicing strong opposition to this policy are Democrats, I think it’s got to give you some pause before you grant approval.”

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