Friday, April 19, 2013
Group of GOP lawmakers call for abolishing PA Turnpike citing scandal, redundancy.
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Friday, April 19
By Melissa Daniels/Pa Independent HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania has two transportation agencies. One controls more than 40,000 miles of state roads and 25,000 bridges, and another maintains 545 miles of tolled highway. The former has seven executives, one for every 5,857 miles of roadway; the latter nine executives, one for every 60 miles of roadway. For a group of Republican lawmakers, this doesn’t add up, especially when one of those agencies was the subject of a 44-month long grand jury investigation over alleged bid-rigging. Standing alongside a dozen other GOP lawmakers, Rep. Donna Oberlander, R-Clarion, introduced legislation Wednesday to abolish the “corruption-infested” Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and fold the route’s operation …
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Eight people including a former Pennsylvania state senator were charged on Wednesday with alleged crimes related to the awarding of contracts in exchange for political contributions and gifts.
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Thursday, March 14
By Eric Boehm | PA Independent HARRISBURG – Three former top officials at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and a former state senator have been accused of running a political scheme that resulted in “untold millions” of taxpayer dollars being misused and stolen. Attorney General Kathleen Kane said the officials were engaged in a “pay-to-play” arrangement with engineering firms, insurance companies and banks that had contracts with the turnpike between 2000 and 2011. In total, eight men have been charged with various counts of conspiracy, bribery, bid rigging, theft and several other charges. Kane said the officials used their power to secure “secret gifts of cash, travel and entertainment, along with political contributions” from …
Sunday, February 10, 2013
The Pennsylvania Turnpike might soon be out from under the onerous debt created by Act 44.
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Sunday, February 10
By Eric Boehm | PA Independent HARRISBURG – The budget proposal outlined by Gov. Tom Corbett on Tuesday calls for the repeal of a 2007 state law that has driven the Pennsylvania Turnpike deep into debt and forced five consecutive years of toll increases. Related story: Turnpike Scheme Cost Pa. Taxpayers $108 Million, Auditor General Says The governor’s budget would sunset that law – Act 44 of 2007– within 10 years, but an administration official says motorists using the turnpike can expect to continue seeing toll increases for the next decade, and probably longer, to retire the turnpike’s $8 billion in debt. Lawmakers say they are supportive of the repeal and are looking for ways to lessen the impact on drivers. Secretary of …
Sunday, January 27, 2013
The Pa. Turnpike Commission chairman was given a new car nine days before the turnpike increased tolls on motorists for the fifth consecutive year.
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Sunday, January 27
By Eric Boehm | PA Independent HARRISBURG – Following on the heels of an audit report revealing that the Turnpike Commission purchased new vehicles for the members of the five member panel that governs the agency, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Wednesday that commission chairman William Lieberman got a brand new Jeep Cherokee last month at a cost of about $40,000. He was given the new car exactly nine days before the turnpike increased tolls on motorists for the fifth consecutive year. Here’s what the Inky’s Paul Nussbaum uncovered: Lieberman, a Pittsburgh insurance executive, received the 2013 Grand Cherokee on Dec. 28 to replace a 2012 Grand Cherokee that he had received a year earlier. That one cost turnpike users $38,448. The year-…
Monday, January 14, 2013
Turnpike tolls and debt went up for five years while men running the major highway received new cars worth $28,000
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Monday, January 14
By Eric Boehm | PA Independent HARRISBURG – So what if you have to pay a little extra to use the state’s major east-west highway? At least the guys at the top have sweet rides. Tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike have increased for five consecutive years and the highway’s debt burden has ballooned by more than 200 percent since 2007. At the same time, the men charged with running the turnpike received new cars valued at more than $28,000 each and were reimbursed for the cost of gas and maintenance, according to an audit released by Auditor General Jack Wagner last week. Turnpike tolls increased on January 6. The Turnpike Commission spent more than $406,000 purchasing vehicles for commissioners between January 2007 and August 2011, …
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Interest rate swaps by Pa. Turnpike Commission cost taxpayers and motorists at least $108.9 million, according to Pa. Auditor General Jack Wagner
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Wednesday, January 9
The following press release was provided by the Pa. Auditor General: Auditor General Jack Wagner said that an audit released Wednesday of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has found that the turnpike’s involvement in interest-rate swaps has cost Pennsylvania taxpayers and turnpike motorists at least $108.9 million. Turnpike tolls rose Jan. 6 Wagner said the turnpike’s strategy was to use the swaps to save money, but it has instead proved to further saddle the debt-ridden commission by not using conventional fixed-rate bonds to finance its debt. Under Act 44, a Lease and Funding Agreement was entered into by the turnpike and PennDOT, which requires the turnpike to pay PennDOT $450 million a year, or nearly $24 billion, over a period of …
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Drivers on the Pennsylvania Turnpike will have to pay higher tolls in 2013
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Wednesday, January 2
Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls will be higher in 2013 as the result of an increase approved by the turnpike commission: The last time tolls went up was January 2011. The commission says the change will hike toll revenue 3 percent to fulfill a $450 million funding obligation to the state. More changes are in the works as turnpike officials consider the possibility of eliminating toll plazas and cash payments.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Pa. Auditor General Jack Wagner said recently the turnpike needs to keep better records of who receives free tolling perks and how they are used.
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Monday, December 17, 2012
By Eric Boehm | PA Independent HARRISBURG — The lax oversight of tolling cards given to employees and contractors of the Pennsylvania Turnpike should get tighter before tolls increase next month, Auditor General Jack Wagner says. Wagner said recently the turnpike needs to keep better records of who receives free tolling perks and how they are used. His comments came as part of a special performance audit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. The turnpike allows employees, contractors, state police and some other state officials to avoid paying tolls, yet it fails to distinguish whether those perks are used for business purposes or for pleasure. In all, the freebies cost the turnpike about $7.7 million in revenue over a four-year period …
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Plans are in the works to make the Pennsylvania Turnpike all electronic and get rid of toll plazas
- BUSINESS
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Sunday, November 18, 2012
Officials are planning a dramatic conversion of the Pennsylvania Turnpike to all electronic tolling with no more toll plazas or cash payments in about five years. Turnpike Commission officials told state lawmakers that the project is the most ambitious of its kind in the nation. Instead of driving through toll plazas, vehicles will pass beneath sensors that will automatically deduct tolls from E-Z Pass accounts or photograph license plates so a bill can be sent to the owner. In July, the commission hired a contractor -- HNTB Corp., a Missouri company with five offices including one in Harrisburg -- to move forward with the plans to convert to an all-electronic tolling system that would eliminate the use of cash along the 545-mile route, …
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Auditor General Jack Wagner says the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s debt crisis is growing more serious
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Sunday, September 30, 2012
By Eric Boehm | PA Independent HARRISBURG — Auditor General Jack Wagner on Tuesday accused the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission of using “flim-flam financing” to pay off its $7 billion debt. But Roger Nutt, CEO of the commission, said its finances are sound — as long as it increases tolls for the next decade and beyond. And if the motorists don’t pay, Wagner said, “that debt is guaranteed to be paid … by the taxpayers of Pennsylvania.” Wagner told a joint hearing of the House and Senate transportation committees that the turnpike’s unsustainable debt, which is spiraling out of control, will drive up tolls and eventually drive motorists away from the turnpike completely. Nutt argued that the tipping point — when increased toll revenue is …
Darnell
9:04 am on Saturday, April 20, 2013
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