Congressman
John E. Peterson

Washington, DC - Today, Congressman John E. Peterson, R-Pa., released the following statement regarding a letter from the U.S. Department of Transportation to Pennsylvania’s Transportation Secretary, Allen Biehler, and Turnpike Commissioner, Joe Brimmeier, on the actual status of their tolling application. More to the point, the letter poignantly addresses the outlandish comment made by Brimmeier that Pennsylvania “has the third spot.” Brimmeier made this statement while on a recent toll-payer funded work trip in Vienna, Austria.

“If such a comment like this would have come from any other agency, I would have been surprised. But coming from the Turnpike Commission, I’m not remotely shocked. They have once again put the cart ahead of the horse, claiming that the linchpin to their flawed Act 44 was a done deal.

“Because of Act 44, which was authored by the Senate leadership, the Turnpike Commission is recklessly putting Pennsylvania taxpayers in a dangerous position. Having already borrowed $62.5 million and with an additional $229.2 million slated to be borrowed by month’s end, it’s lunacy for these state officials to have assumed that their tolling application was going to sail through. This, by the tone and subject matter of DoT’s letter, is surely not the case, especially since it appears there are already six different Interstates facilities ahead of Pennsylvania for the six available slots.”

To view a copy of the letter, click here.

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NOTE: Peterson’s column, Repeal Act 44, Again, was featured today in Capnews.