Peterson 'Nervous' About Tolls
The leading opponent of Interstate 80 tolls struck a pessimistic note Wednesday in saying that the fate of the controversial issue rests in the hands of a single person in Washington, the head of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pleasantville, made remarks about tolling before about 500 people at an Ag Progress Days luncheon and during an impromptu news conference beforehand.
“It’s now the decision of one woman in Washington, Mary Peters, a nice lady but who loves to privatize roads and would like to have one on her resume,” Peterson said. “That’s scary, and so I’m nervous. ... We’re nervous until she says no.”
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, authorized by last year’s Act 44 to plan and implement I-80 tolls to help cover road and bridge work and public transit funding, still needs the approval of the Peters-controlled Federal Highway Administration to go ahead.
The Turnpike Commission, which Peterson called the state’s “least respected agency,” had its initial application turned down by FHA in December but submitted a highly detailed revision last month. FHA is expected to reply by the end of next month.
Peterson, who is retiring at year’s end after 12 years in Congress, told the Ag Progress lunch crowd that Act 44 “needs to be repealed” because I-80 tolls “will drive a spike in the heart of the economic future of this state.”
“We are a state with great potential,” Peterson said. “We are the Keystone State, within a day’s drive of both Georgia and Maine. We can serve the whole megalopolis if we compete.”
In the news conference, Peterson took a shot at Gov. Ed Rendell’s positions that keep in play both the I-80 toll plan and an alternate proposal to lease the turnpike to a Spanish-U.S. consortium for 75 years in return for a $12.8 billion payment to the state.
Peterson said Rendell is first and foremost interested in securing funding for big-city mass transit systems.
“The governor’s playing the middle,” Peterson said. “He’s playing it both ways.”
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