A poll this week of 504 Pennsylvania residents shows that 95% of participants believe that the quality of the state's transportation is extremely, very, or somewhat important to the state's economy. Overall, 69% of those polled said that the state should increase its spending on roads, bridges, and highways, Republican pollster Frank Luntz said during a press conference with Gov. Edward Rendell Thursday on the survey.
The administration asked Luntz of the Word Doctors LLC and Jefrey Pollock, a Democratic pollster at Global Strategy Group, to conduct the transportation funding survey.
Participants were interviewed Aug. 16 through Aug. 18 and described themselves as "definitely or probably" voting in the November election, according to Luntz. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4%.
Of those polled, 75% support implementing a tax on the profits that oil companies generate in Pennsylvania. Rendell, a Democrat, estimates that tax would produce around $750 million per year for the state. A smaller amount, 48%, favor increasing motor and vehicle fees.
Only 34% of those polled support an increase in the gas tax. Rendell said he believes that if the question had included the cost of such an increase — four cents per gallon or 46 cents more per week for the average driver — a higher percentage of respondents would have supported a gas-tax initiative.
Rendell stressed that residents want the state to spend more on roads and bridges to help boost Pennsylvania's economy.
"People are not dumb, they know that we're playing Russian roulette with our public safety," Rendell said during the press conference. "They know that our economy depends on a good and efficient transportation system and they also know that jobs are created in huge numbers."
Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, believes that the oil-profits tax proposal would be hampered by litigation.
"Even using his own wording, the governor could only generate majority support for one revenue idea, and even if the legislature imposed that one [the tax on oil companies], it would almost certainly be litigated and the state would not see any revenue benefit for many years, if ever."
Pennsylvania must find $472.5 million for transportation spending for fiscal 2011, which began July 1.
Legislative leaders Monday will hear from Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler during a bipartisan, bicameral caucus regarding the administration's proposal for filling the funding shortfall.
Rendell declined to give the details of his proposal. In the past he has suggested using an oil company profits tax and issuing bonds to help raise needed funds. The governor plans to present to lawmakers a scaled-back proposal, compared to his ideal transportation-funding solutions.
"I would actually go above what I'm going to propose on Monday and do a multitude of things," Rendell said. "I would do — and again, this is not necessarily what I'm proposing — but if I were king, I would do the [motor vehicle] fees and the gas tax. That's 79 cents a week for motorists. I would do the oil company net-profits tax. And I would do some bonding to put between $1.5 billion and $2 billion a year into transportation infrastructure for the next five to six years. That's what I would do. It's not necessarily what I'm going to ask the legislature to do."
In April, the Federal Highway Administration rejected Pennsylvania's request to implement tolls on Interstate 80, creating a deficit in the state's transportation program. The state had anticipated that tolling the 311-mile roadway would generate $472.5 million in fiscal 2011 from toll receipts and bond proceeds secured by the revenue stream.
