Will the Pa. Turnpike become PennDOT?

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission might become another arm of the Pennsylvania DOT—or the agency might be severed from existence all together.

Gov. Ed Rendell is asking his lawmakers to look into merging the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission into PennDOT. The state legislature will have a special session on May 4 to come up with ideas to fill a nearly $500 million annual hole in the transportation budget created by the U.S. DOT’s rejection of tolling I-80.

State lawmakers have tried for three decades to eliminate the Turnpike Commission, and there is current legislation calling for such a move.

“If there is time to do away with the commission, it’s now,” political analyst Larry Ceisler told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “If Republicans are looking for efficiency and streamlined government, I’d think they would have the will to do it.”

In the meantime, the executive director of the Mon Valley Progress Council wants to see the state revise and submit the toll application for I-80 a fourth time.

“The turn-down was specifically based on the toll revenue being directed to things other than improvements to I-80,” Joseph Kirk told the Tribune-Review. “[The U.S. DOT] did not rule on its overall merits.”