Governor Rendell completed a four-day, eight-stop bus tour across the state last week touting his two-pronged solution to solving Pennsylvania’s transportation funding crisis.

The governor is attempting to address a funding gap of $965 million a year for bridge and highway maintenance that was earlier suggested by the Transportation Funding Reform Commission. He has proposed to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private operator, suggesting such a deal would bring an up-front payment of $10 billion to $12 billion, which if placed in a trust fund would generate the additional revenue required to eliminate the gap.

Additionally, he has proposed a 6.17 percent tax on oil company profits, which he says would generate $700 million annually for mass transit. During the tour, he reiterated that he would give Attorney General Tom Corbett the power to prevent the tax from being passed along to consumers.

Meanwhile, some legislators from both parties have expressed skepticism toward some of the assumptions in the plan, such as whether the Turnpike deal would bring $10 billion or more, whether the funds generated can be protected for transportation purposes, whether the oil company profits tax would be constitutional or whether consumers could be shielded from it if it were deemed constitutional.

“We applaud the governor for starting this discussion on needed transportation funding,” said Ron Drnevich, PHIA president.

While focusing on much needed bridge repairs on PennDOT’s system, the $965 million represents the middle of the three funding levels suggested by the Transportation Funding Reform Commission, Even if $965 million grew with inflation, it would still only repair the existing highway system – and it would take 17 years to do that. It would provide, as Commission documents state, “very limited capacity expansion projects.”

“The Pennsylvania Economy League’s transportation study had the most accurate assessment of the issue that we’ve seen so far”, said Drnevich. “The Economy League said a true solution would require dedicated, inflation-sensitive funding sources for highways and mass transit, and that it is likely to include a combination of privatization, increased user fees, local planning and taxing options and prudent use of debt.