Toll on integrity: The turnpike chairman owes the public an answer
Finally! We were beginning to wonder if anybody is paying attention to the role of the Turnpike Commission's Chairman in Sen. Fumo's 139-count federal indictment.
Although the Turnpike Commission claims that Chairman Mitchell Rubin's alleged role in defrauding the taxpayers of $150,000 is not relevant to the toll road, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial board begs to differ:
The turnpike is an instrument of state government with four commissioners appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate (the fifth is the transportation secretary) to oversee the state's 537-mile system and its $593 million in annual tolls collected. They are positions of trust that should be filled by people with integrity. The commissioners serve part-time but they receive generous compensation, like Chairman Rubin's $28,500 a year.
The history of the Pennsylvania Turnpike is already pockmarked with patronage and politics. To have its chairman named as a ghost employee of a senator under indictment only adds to that shabby lore.
Mitchell Rubin has not been charged, but his characterization by federal prosecutors cries out for a public explanation. It might even call for a leave of absence.
We, of course, think it requires much more than "a leave of absence". Simply changing patronage bosses does nothing to improve the operation of the road or end the scandals. But leasing the Turnpike to a private operator would. Not only would it abolish the Turnpike Commission, it would generate more transportation funding than the corrupt Commission ever will.
3 comments:
Do the math the commission does $593M in annual tolls, you think $12.8B for 75 years is worth it. Come on this blog is a reach and avoids the states true problem, infrastructure.
Anonymous:
How much has the Turnpike provided to the state? $0. Prior to this year, the PTC paid ZERO of the $593M to anyone but itself. Sure, in 2008 the PTC has begun making payments to prop up SEPTA and PAT and fund some roads, but all that money is bonded debt that will be paid back by unlimited toll increases on the Turnpike and I-80 (if the Feds hand over that road to the inept and corrupt PTC).
As for $12.8B not being a enough for you, then you must really be ticked at the Act 44 rip-off that will cost the taxpayers more than $37B in lost revenue.
As for this blog being a "reach", we're glad you read it and feel compelled to respond anyway. :)
We're going to pay for the deferred maintenance whether we use bonded debt or the lease or a fully transparent tax.
Whether the Turnpike is operated by the PTC or by a concessionaire under the terms of the proposed lease, we have to pay prevailing wages, so I see little benefit to the lease.
The Post-Gazette correctly states that the Turnpike is an instrument of state government. I would add it is also emblematic of state government: Out of control and under no adult supervision.
Perhaps we simply need to restore some semblance of control and accountability to state government as a whole, not simply the Turnpike.
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