Will it fly?: Pennsylvania’s Rendell Proposes $1 Billion in taxes to fix roads

With 10,000 miles of the state’s roads in poor condition, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell thinks it should raise a billion dollars in new revenue from taxes on drivers and oil companies. In an interesting twist, he wants to legally bar oil companies from passing along their increased costs to consumers.

For the lame-duck (term limited) Democratic governor, it may seem a move rather late in his eight-year tenure. The state’s roads have been historically in poor condition. And it is less than a third of what the state needs: those roads, together with 5,646 structurally deficient bridges, would really cost $3.5 billion to fix. But Pennsylvania transportation head Allen Biehler says that it would be politically unfeasible to ask for more than that during a political year. The proposal is to draw an 8 percent tax on oil company profits, plus vehicle registration, drivers license and certificate of title fee hikes borne by motorists.

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