Editorial: Make E-ZPass easier for low-income drivers

The Pennsylvania Turnpike was created under a simple concept: Drivers would pay tolls, and the revenue would be used to pay for operations, construction and maintenance.

Instead, state lawmakers have used the turnpike to generate money for the government, forcing it since 2007 to borrow $450 million a year for the state Department of Transportation and mass transit. Now, the turnpike’s tolls go not only toward its own business but also to pay off billions of dollars in loans.

The toll increases that legislators have forced the commission to impose are fine with those lawmakers. The high tolls don’t carry the direct political blowback that the politicians would face by imposing tax increases.

Now, Democratic state Rep. Ed Neilson of Philadelphia has introduced a bill that would make the turnpike mess even messier.

The turnpike has eliminated cash tolls. It has a systemwide E-ZPass electronic toll system that automatically deducts payments from drivers’ accounts. The turnpike also records the license numbers of vehicles without E-ZPass transponders and bills the registered owner of each vehicle.

To encourage use of the low-cost electronic system, the turnpike has set tolls much higher for vehicles that do not use it. For example, the turnpike portion of a trip from Clarks Summit to Philadelphia costs $14.90 with E-ZPass but $30.90 under the Toll by Plate system.

Overall, the system has a 93% collection rate — the industry average — but the 7% who don’t pay rack up more than $100 million a year in unpaid tolls. The state has responded with more aggressive collection and expanded payment methods.

The new bill, based on the premise that the disparate toll rates are unfair to low-income drivers — some of whom don’t have the bank or credit card accounts necessary to use E-ZPass — would equalize electronic and Toll by Plate toll rates.

It’s a bad idea. The bill does not take into account the much higher costs of non-electronic toll collection. And it would persuade more drivers not to use E-ZPass, which in turn would increase the non-collection rate.

The Legislature and commission should devise ways for lower-income drivers to use E-ZPass, thus providing the discount, rather than creating more collection problems by forfeiting the E-ZPass incentive.