I-80 tolling

Pennsylvania's biggest problem in getting permission to toll I-80 may turn out not to be intricacies of federal highway law and regulations, but simply whether the Federal Government should turn over control of a major interstate to a bunch of crooks to make money out of. A local thinktank in the state capital Harrisburg, the Commonwealth Foundation puts this bluntly in a two-page letter from its president Matt Brouillette addressed to James Ray, Federal Highway Administrator. 560 words  read more »

Governor Ed Rendell said Monday that the Turnpike Commission "can't win this by stalling." In a memo to Turnpike CEO Joseph Brimmeier, as reported by Brad Bumstead in the Pittsburgh Tribune this morning, the Governor wrote: "I believe it is time for the Commonwealth (of Pennsylvania) to get an answer one way or the other from the US Department of Transportation regarding whether tolls on Interstate 80 will be allowed."
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The US House-Senate transport appropriations conference removed an I-80 anti tolling amendment from a budget bill late last night, according to its main sponsor and champion northern PA congressman John Peterson (Repub).

Peterson issued this statement which we quote at length because it echoes many of the themes being heard along I-80:
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