Barry Schoch won't gloat.
He's too professional. Too serious about his life's work
as an engineer. Too proud of the men and women he directs as secretary of the
state Department of Transportation.
But Schoch would have every right to scream from the
highest bridge in Pennsylvania: Told you so.
Schoch was the catalyst of arguably Gov. Tom Corbett's
biggest, most important legislative victory: the November 2013 passage of the
largest road, bridge and mass transit spending law the state has adopted in
nearly two decades.
The $2.4 billion transportation funding package, known as
Act 89, went into effect Jan. 1. It was expected to raise transportation
spending up to 39 percent over the current $6.1 billion by 2017-18.
In 2014, the bill's impact on motorists and taxpayers has
gone exactly — and in some cases better — than Schoch had predicted in speeches
while crisscrossing the state to garner public support and in private talks
with reluctant lawmakers.
Schoch promised skeptics that PennDOT could manage the
influx of taxpayer money to fix more roads and bridges.
"We are not only on schedule, we are ahead of
schedule," he said in an interview.
PennDOT had estimated Act 89 would allow the agency to
spend an additional $800 million in the first 18 months. PennDOT figured it
could pay for 200 additional projects totaling nearly 1,600 miles of road
improvements and 83 bridges.
The law has brought in $1.5 billion in the same time,
enabling the state to repave and resurface 221 roads, spanning 1,696 miles, by
November, PennDOT records show. That includes 20 road projects and more than
199 miles in the district that covers the Lehigh Valley, Poconos and Berks
County.
Those figures do not include additional road projects
scheduled to be bid in the fall, with construction in 2015.
PennDOT is on track with its bridge work, too, under a
pilot program that allows bidding several bridges under one contract. The
bundling program saves costs on supplies and design work, Schoch said.
The only bridge being replaced in the Lehigh Valley area
is the 84-year-old Second Street bridge over Cold Spring Creek in Whitehall
Township. It costs $3.8 million.
But in coming years, the Valley area's bridge jobs will
pick up. Act 89 is allowing PennDOT to restart long-mothballed expansion plans
such as the widening of Route 22 and improving the Fahy Bridge over the Lehigh
River in Bethlehem.
"Without Act 89, none of that would happen,"
said Becky A. Bradley, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning
Commission. "Put some lines under that [statement], bold it or put it in
flashing lights. It is that important, Act 89."
An additional $207 million in Act 89 funds will be
distributed to mass transit agencies by the end of the year, PennDOT records
show.
The Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority is
leveraging the new state money with federal money to buy three buses and 15
vans for its Lehigh Valley service this year.
"We've seen our operating funds in much better
condition than they were prior to Act 89, and we should be financially sound
for the next five years," LANTA Executive Director Armando Greco said.
The state's largest mass transit agency, SEPTA, which
operates in Philadelphia and its suburbs, on Wednesday issued a $55.5 million
public bid to replace a 119-year-old, 1,000-foot-long, 100-foot high passenger
rail viaduct over a Delaware County creek. The crumbling viaduct was often used
as a news conference staging ground to drum up support for the Legislature to
pass the funding package.
The viaduct would not have been fixed without Act 89,
SEPTA Deputy General Manager Jeff Knueppel said. If Act 89 did not pass, he
said, SEPTA was planning to curtail or close several regional rail lines in the
city and suburbs.
"Act 89 has given us a future," Knueppel said.
The bill's dreaded gasoline and diesel fuel tax increase
to pay for the transportation upgrades is less obvious than critics feared
thanks in large part to the worldwide drop in crude oil prices.
"We've said it all along," Schoch said.
"What price you pay at the pump is affected more by the cost of a barrel
of crude, cost of refining and getting it there [to the gas station] rather
than the taxes. No one believed that."
The law eliminated a 12-cent consumer tax and raised the
millage on a oil franchise tax, which wholesale distributors pay. The fear
among lawmakers was wholesalers, such as Wawa, Sheetz and Sunoco, would pass
most or all of that tax onto consumers at the pump. They did pass some of it
along, but how much is unknown due to private pricing data held by the
wholesalers.
Between January and May, the state's average consumer gas
price rose 27 cents to $3.78 a gallon, according to AAA. Diesel prices went up
12 cents to $4.22 in that time. In June, prices started falling. As of
Thursday, the average prices were $2.85 for regular gasoline and $3.57 for
diesel.
Pennsylvania was smart and lucky to act when it did, said
Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at gasbuddy.com. Although gas prices
are dropping, Pennsylvania still collects the same amount of taxes because it's
based on a straight monetary value as opposed to a sales tax percentage, he
said.
"It would have been impossible to see this big slide
in prices coming," DeHaan said.
In November, the state collected $204 million in taxes,
$10.5 million more than estimates, for the Motor License Fund, which includes
gas and diesel taxes, license, fine and fee increases, state Revenue Department
records show. That pushed the fund's annual tax collection to more than $996
million, which is $13.8 million, or 1.4 percent, above estimates.
Sen. John Rafferty, R-Montgomery, chairman of the Senate
Transportation Committee, said several people have asked him in if he knew gas
prices would fall. Absolutely, he quips.
Even with gas prices falling, work continues.
None of it would have occurred without Schoch's
leadership, said state Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, the only member of the
Lehigh Valley's House delegation to support the funding bill. The Legislature
would not have approved the bill if not for Schoch's ability to negotiate and
rattle off statewide and regional statistics about roads and traffic, he said.
"Barry Schoch was brilliant," Schlossberg said.
Corbett deserves credit for hiring Schoch, added Gene
Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.
"I've been in this business a long time," Barr
said. "I don't think I've ever seen a secretary work harder to get a bill
passed."
Gov.-elect Tom Wolf would be wise to keep Schoch as
transportation secretary, Schlossberg added. Schoch said he'd be willing to
talk to Wolf about the position, but so far has not been approached. No
decisions have been made, Wolf spokesman Jeffrey Sheridan said.
The passage of Act 89 was government at its finest
because Democrats and Republicans compromised, Schlossberg said. Democrats
dropped opposition to reducing construction workers' pay by not mandating they
receive regional union-scale wages on local transportation projects budgeted at
$100,000, he said. Republicans dropped opposition to a tax increase, he said.
"People walked away happy with the overall plan, but
a little upset over some of the details," Schlossberg said. "But
that's the way you are supposed to govern."
The transportation funding fight that Harrisburg saw in
2013 could resurface in counties next year, when Act 89 allows them to place a
$5 surcharge on vehicle registration fees to raise money for county owned road
and bridge repairs.
steve.esack@mcall.com
Twitter @sesack
717-783-7305
ACT 89 BY THE NUMBERS IN 2014
$1.5 billion in new revenue for roads and bridges
$207 million for mass transit
$60 million for local transportation projects, ports,
rail freight and aviation
1,696 miles of road resurface and repaved
83 bridges fixed or under construction.
Source: Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
Copyright 2014 - The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.)
Source: Mass
Transit
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