TROC submits report to Governor Wolf
Gov. Tom Wolf’s Transportation Revenue Options Commission completed its assigned task, submitting its report to the governor last week.
While several of the recommendations still require fleshing out, the transportation construction industry strongly endorsed three of the recommendations for which it has been advocating for some time:
- The report recommended completely removing the State Police from the Motor License Fund, which would restore the equivalent of 11 cents per gallon specifically for road and bridge improvements, without raising the state gasoline tax. The MLF has been subsidizing about three-quarters of the State Police operations annually.
- The report also calls for establishing a fee for electric vehicles, which currently do not contribute to repairing the wear and tear they cause to roads and bridges. While such a fee would contribute a relatively small amount for road and bridge upkeep initially, vehicle manufacturers across the globe are moving toward a transition to EVs in the near future.
- Given the considerable growth in the delivery economy, the Commission recommended establishing fees for products delivered to homes and businesses. It appears that these fees could be relatively small, yet would raise substantial revenue for building and maintaining transportation infrastructure.
Associated Pennsylvania Constructors, while also strongly supporting replacement of the state gas tax with a Commission-recommended mileage-based fee, said that transition may be several years away and would require federal leadership to coordinate the system among the states. Until then, APC said, the current federal and state consumption-based fuel taxes will continue to be the most dependable source of transportation funding.
PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian has suggested that policymakers may begin working on the legislative aspects of the report as soon as this fall. Implementing most or all of the recommendations will take several years.
The final TROC report can be found at this link.
