PA State Police use $4.2 billion meant for roads

FRITZ MAYER
Posted 5/1/19

PA State Police use $4.2 billion meant for roads By FRITZ MAYER HARRISBURG, PA — According to a report released by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale on April 25, funding originally meant to go …

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PA State Police use $4.2 billion meant for roads

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PA State Police use $4.2 billion meant for roads

By FRITZ MAYER

HARRISBURG, PA — According to a report released by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale on April 25, funding originally meant to go to the Motor License Fund to pay for repairs and replacement of roads has instead gone to the PA State Police. DePasquale said the amount of funding transferred to state police since 2012 amounted to $4.2 billion.

 “More than 2,800 state-maintained bridges across Pennsylvania are structurally deficient and our bridges average over 50 years in age—beyond what they were designed to last,” DePasquale said. “That $4.25 billion could have cut that list in half, and if PennDOT could use all of the gas tax money for roads and bridges, we could get that number to zero in about five years.”

A press release from DePasquale says the state constitution requires that proceeds from the Motor License Fund are to be used only for the construction, reconstruction, maintenance and repair of highways and bridges.

“There’s a whopping 57.6 cents of state tax added to each gallon of gas sold in Pennsylvania,” DePasquale said. “Pennsylvanians are frustrated that our roads and bridges still need so much help at the same time we are paying the highest gas tax in the United States.”

But Stan Saylor, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, says the report is essentially an attempt to gain publicity. “For anyone, let alone the auditor general of the Commonwealth, to claim he ‘found’ $4.25 billion is, at best, misleading. Since at least the 1960s, the Motor License Fund has helped fund the Pennsylvania State Police.”

A statement from Saylor says that, when DePasquale was a member of the house, he voted for many budgets that took money from the Motor License Fund instead of the General Fund to pay for state police operations.

DePasquale says funds from the Motor License Fund should go to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) which, in the 2017-18 cycle, was $800 million. “The nearly $800 million that came out of the fund in one year could have helped PennDOT make a significant dent in the list of urgent needs across Pennsylvania,” he added. “While State Police certainly deserve to be adequately funded, I don’t think anyone is thrilled about seeing gas tax revenues being siphoned off for purposes other than improving our roads and bridges.”

news, PA state police, motor license fund, pennDOT, harrisburg

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