VIDEO: Critics Say Turnpike Needs Reform

NBC 5 Video on the Turnpike Commission's dining expenses charged to drivers.

They spent a mindboggling total of $1,800 at Haydn's on Pine in Harrisburg in June 2007 (when Act 44 was being debated), and spent $13,000 since 2005 on meals in Harrisburg for their top two officials.

Joe Brimmeier defends the cost as necessary, "if I'm going to compete as a private business" and "to stay competitive."

That would make sense if he was buying dinner for drivers to convince them to drive the Turnpike. Buying dinner for elected officials to get a sweetheart deal is the opposite of competing as a private business.