PA Bill Number: HB1472
Title: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contributions ...
Description: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contrib ...
Last Action: Referred to STATE GOVERNMENT
Last Action Date: Apr 22, 2024
Our Opinion: Low gas prices vindicate Gov. Tom Corbett's transportation-funding strategy :: 09/02/2014
Gov. Tom Corbett is owed an apology from his detractors on both sides of the aisle. When the governor last year signed into law a sweeping transportation bill aimed at restoring our state's crumbling infrastructure, he was dealt swift attacks by Republicans and Democrats alike who warned that our gas prices would forever be artificially high.
With gas hovering around $3.30 per gallon across Northeastern Pennsylvania - a few pennies cheaper than some places in New Jersey and 30 to 40 cents cheaper than most places in New York - it seems doomsday predictions were unfounded.
In November, Corbett signed a $2.3 billion transportation bill to better fund the state Department of Transportation. The bill paved the way for the state to collect about 10 cents more per gallon than it had in the past. The money was earmarked for repairs to crumbling roads and bridges, public transportation and projects along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The governor had little choice but to sign the bill. PennDOT was facing a $3 billion deficit, and years of neglect and delayed maintenance had left the state's infrastructure in bad shape.
Nonetheless, critics said the governor was sticking it to lower- and middle-class residents who would be disproportionately affected by higher gas prices.
Those complainers failed to take into account what Corbett wisely knew: Our free-market system would prevent gas prices from swelling.
There are a few reasons why, and an NPR report on Pennsylvania's gas prices best explains why prices at the pump are (relatively) cheap.
First, Pennsylvania has one of the most competitive gas-station markets in the country, with Sheetz, Turkey Hill and - south and east of here - Wawa driving down prices. Those stores are willing to break even on gas and forgo profits in efforts to get customers inside their stores, where they'll buy deli items.
Second, the state's proximity to refineries near Philadelphia and South Jersey means it's cheaper to get refined gasoline to our gas stations than it is to, say, parts of the Midwest.
Neither of those dynamics went away because of our state's new transportation bill.
Are gas prices higher than they would be had that bill not been signed into law? Of course. (But then where would money come from to pay for much-needed highway repairs?) But are gas prices as high as Corbett's naysayers said they would be? Absolutely not.
Corbett's not a perfect governor - we'd be hard-pressed to name someone who is - but his handling of a critical transportation-funding issue in this case was sound.
