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Leave it to dirtbag republicans to gum up the works. The state of Pennsylvania needs money to maintain roads, bridges and mass transit systems. Three options were laid upon the table in order to do this: raise the gasoline tax, lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private company or put toll booths on Interstate 80. Neither side of the legislative aisle relished the first two options, thus a compromise was made to toll I-80 in the form of Act 44. Perhaps not happy, at least everyone could be reasonably satisfied that a solution had been found and a compromise reached.
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Before the Interstate 35W Bridge over The Mississippi River in Minneapolis fell, two rural republican congressmen from Pennsylvania decided to block efforts to add tolls to Interstate 80. While I am not a great fan toll roads - particularly the open system of tolling that is being proposed for I-80 - I understand that, pragmatically, the money for mass transit and infrastructure funding needs to come from somewhere. Given that I rarely ever drive I-80 (I don't think I've ever driven it, to be honest), the fact that they were going to toll the road to free up money for other aspects of the transportation budget was not a particularly bitter pill to swallow.
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