Posted on 04/02/2018 7:15:39 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Elizabeth Zemba of Mt. Pleasant, a daily Pennsylvania Turnpike traveler, turned to art and creativity to express frustration with the highway's ever-rising tolls.
She created an Internet meme.
A photo of a turnpike tollbooth is overlaid with the logo: "Pennsylvania Turnpike re-inventing highway robbery since 2009."
For many, annual turnpike toll increases simply have become too much to bear.
Two weeks ago, a coalition of truckers and motorists advocates filed a class action suit against the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, PennDOT and Gov. Tom Wolf, seeking to recoup "excessive fees" that went to underwrite projects other than the operation of the turnpike. Such fees, they claimed, were a violation of the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause.
The truckers groups contend federal interstate commerce laws specify that turnpike tolls can only be used to maintain or expand the 359-mile highway.
For decades, the turnpike was the perfect place for powerful Pennsylvania lawmakers to park politically connected friends and contractors.
Court archives and various independent investigations detail the history of corruption, nepotism and cronyism in the operations of America's first superhighway from 1957 through 2014.
But it wasn't until 2007 that state lawmakers, reluctant to pass new taxes or lease the turnpike to a private bidder, added what some travelers refer to as highway robbery to the mix when they passed Act 44. The act required the commission to divert at least $450 million a year to PennDOT for the next 50 years.
The plan called for tolling Interstate 80, which the federal government later rejected. However, the annual payments to PennDOT are continuing.
(Excerpt) Read more at triblive.com ...
Yep, it’s a scam, and I have a Penn. EZ pass.
How much are the tolls?
Wanna know why?
Wanna know why there is a democrat governor in Harrisburg who with a corrupt supreme court are about to gerrymand republicans into oblivion?
Governor Tom Corbett (R) hung PA with a 32 cent tax increase on gas - highest in the nation.
And then made increases to the PA Tolls AUTOMATIC.
And republicans wonder why they can’t win.
Gov’t: It is a temporary tax
My monthly bill has crept up into the $60 range. The only reason I even look at it is because my company reimburses me for business driving so I have to separate the business tolls from the personal tolls.
Just another added expense for living in the Northeast. Now even Connecticut looks to get in on the toll action.
Looks like a modern day Tea rebellion is in the works.
Corbett was a damned disaster! He made it impossible to argue for voting republican.
The Tax Cattle moo.
We were the first to go, but within ten years not one family member still lived in Philadelphia, and all but one moved out of the state completely.
If Corbett had any sense, he would have had Act 89 amended to eliminate the transfer payments right away and prevent ever-increasing amounts of the higher gas tax from going to the state police. In principle, I don’t have a problem with the gas tax hike, however.
Sounds a lot like how the Illinois Tollway is run.
I checked the PA Turnpike toll calculator and if a car with EZ Pass enters the turnpike from Ohio, and gets off at New Castle, that’s 9.27 miles and the toll is $5.18. I know it is calculated differently in Illinois, but the toll plazas are about 16 miles apart and the usual I-Pass charge is 75 cents.
I guess I can’t really complain that much about the Illinois Tollway. Well, I probably will still complain, but this gives me a little different perspective. Now, the Chicago Skyway at $5.20 a pop is a different story.
Most people don’t know that truckers pay up to $200 just to get on and off Long Island, NY.
Isn’t it something like $105 for an 18-wheeler to cross the George Washington Bridge?
Yes, it’s the same as tax withholding. How nice no one ever has to think how much any of this costs.
Pre-9/11 it was ten dollars for trucks. Today it’s $110.
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