Stevenson Adds Support to Effort to Eliminate PA Turnpike Commission
Citing a need to bring greater transparency and accountability to transportation in Pennsylvania, Rep. Dick Stevenson (R-Mercer/Butler) today stood in support of legislation to abolish the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, thereby saving Pennsylvania residents millions of dollars while helping restore public faith and trust in government.
“The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is an outdated agency known for political patronage, and most recently, for questionable activity, wasteful spending and ongoing efforts to toll Interstate 80. It seems the only way to correct the situation is to dismantle the agency and bring it under the control of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation,” said Stevenson, noting that two statewide transportation agencies create costly duplication. “As an independent state agency, the Turnpike Commission has not been accountable to residents, toll payers and the General Assembly.”
The legislation Stevenson is co-sponsoring, House Bill 2134, is designed to lessen the stigma of political patronage and corruption and will bring more accountability to the management of the highway. Oversight and management would fall under a new deputy secretary for toll administration within PennDOT. To ensure that a highly qualified individual oversees the turnpike, candidates for the deputy secretary position would be required to have a civil engineering degree and at least 10 years of experience designing and building highways.
The Turnpike Commission is currently under investigation for play-to-pay contracts, including a construction project costing more than $170 million in the Philadelphia area that was originally bid at $90 million. Stevenson noted that with this alleged $80 million overrun, there would be no need for Act 44 of 2007, the legislation authorizing the commission to seek approval of tolls on I-80. Instead, the cost savings on such overruns, executive salaries and third-party contracts for lobbying and other professional services can be used for other highway projects.
Stevenson said that the Turnpike Commission is not run efficiently, as evidenced by the nine executives in charge of 545 miles of roadway – or one executive for every 60 miles of roadway on the turnpike. At PennDOT, seven executives manage more than 41,000 miles of roadway, equating to one executive for every 5,857 miles of state roadway.
“Our intent with this legislation is not to affect the hard-working maintenance staff, engineers, and law enforcement within the Turnpike Commission,” Stevenson said. “Their jobs – and their collective bargaining agreements – would remain intact. Our focus is to eliminate the upper tier executives and the commission.
“Our overriding message is clear,” he continued. “The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is an agency whose mission can better and more efficiently be accomplished by another agency in state government. It is past time to reduce government bureaucracy, decrease administrative costs and bring more accountability to the people of our state.”
Rep. Dick Stevenson
8th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
(724) 458-4911
(717) 783-6438
Contact: Jennifer Algoe Keaton
jkeaton@pahousegop.com
(717) 705-2094