Editorial: One way or another, bridge repairs must be paid for

In the fairy tale about goats trying to cross a bridge, a troll sat under the bridge, waiting to gobble up the goats as payment for their audacity.

Troll bridge. Toll bridge. Is there really much difference? It’s easy to feel like you are being gobbled down one bite at a time when being nickeled and dimed and dollared and credit-carded via Pennsylvania’s toll roads.

So the state Senate action on tolls can seem a lot like the end of the story, when the biggest goat knocks the troll into the river and he disappears forever.

Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration has plans to use public-private partnerships to invest in improvement projects at nine major state bridges, including an Interstate 79 bridge over Route 50 at Bridgeville. Between the bridge and interchange, that project alone could be as high as $150 million. All together, the investments could be up to $2.2 billion.

But a public-private partnership needs to make money. That’s where the tolls come in, with PennDOT Deputy Secretary Melissa Batula suggesting $1 to $2 per passenger car as the price.

The GOP Senate has balked at the Democratic administration’s proposal, but in this instance, it might be less partisan than it seems. Republicans are not wrong that the February announcement could have been more transparent and the Public-Private Transportation Partnership Board should not be so autonomous.

“This initiative and the way it is being advanced is totally counter” to successful projects that have relied on legislative cooperation, said, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Pat Browne, R-Lehigh.

The Senate passed a bill, 28-19, that would demand a new process with legislative approval. That now heads to the House, where it is likely to die even if it passes. Wolf is opposed and there is not a veto-proof Republican majority.

It is undeniable that the state needs to find new ways of funding roads and other transportation infrastructure. The system has traditionally been built on gas taxes, but with fuel efficiency, hybrids and electric vehicles, that isn’t a great model anymore.

A new way to pay for building and paving and operating roadways has to be found. But it has to be found cooperatively — or it will never be accepted.

The governor should do what the troll under the bridge didn’t. Instead of threatening his opponents with new tolls, he should invite them to sit down and find new funding solutions that would work for everyone.