While a significant majority of respondents initially opposed the idea of raising the state gasoline tax to fund highway improvements, 44 percent said they would be more likely to support it if the cost to a typical motorist was held to less than $5 per month.
Similarly, while a majority initially expresses opposition to tolling highways that are currently toll-free, the sentiment swings the other way when respondents are reminded that a significant proportion of the revenue would come from out-of-state motorists using Pennsylvania highways to travel somewhere else. When told that local traffic could be excused from paying tolls, support grows to two-thirds of those surveyed.
Finally, voters by nearly a 2-to-1 ratio agree that funding sources for transportation projects should accommodate inflation. Inflation-sensitive funding sources for the highway and mass transit systems would keep policymakers from having to re-solve the same crisis every few years, as has been the practice for the last several decades.
“Let’s face it, no one especially likes the idea of paying higher taxes or fees,” said Ron Drnevich, PHIA president. “But people understand that sound highway and transit systems are essential for their economic well being and quality of life, and they will accept and support measures that solve this problem.
“They also understand that dedicated, inflation-sensitive funding streams are required for a lasting solution to this dilemma. Monetizing the Turnpike, or borrowing excessively against future Turnpike revenues, does not meet that test without an absolute lockdown on the proceeds for the duration of any Turnpike lease.
"It also requires a limit on the draw from the return on the investment that provides for an inflation growth of the principal. Otherwise a $900 million a year or similar draw would decrease to half the purchasing power in as little as ten years and we would need to re-solve the crisis again, as we have done for the last several decades. Even at that it only provides a piece of the solution.”
