WHY PENNSYLVANIA NEEDS TRANSPORTATION REFORM

Pennsylvanians are paying too much simply to move around their own state.

Families pay at the gas pump.

Commuters pay Turnpike tolls.

Businesses pay higher shipping and delivery costs.

Commercial carriers pay diesel taxes and some of the highest toll costs in the country.

And after all of that, too many Pennsylvania roads and bridges still need major repair.

The current transportation funding system is also becoming less sustainable.

As vehicles become more fuel-efficient and electric vehicles become more common, Pennsylvania cannot continue assuming gasoline and diesel taxes will remain a stable long-term funding source.

The answer should not be continually raising fuel taxes, increasing passenger tolls, imposing broad mileage tracking on ordinary drivers, or creating another layer of hidden transportation fees.

Pennsylvania needs to restructure the system.

Existing roads and bridges should be fixed before lower-priority expansion.

Passenger tolls should be eliminated.

Gasoline and diesel taxes should be phased out.

Commercial transportation should move to a system that better reflects vehicle weight, mileage, and actual infrastructure use.

Commercial Turnpike rates should be reduced so the Turnpike becomes a more attractive route for through-truck traffic rather than pushing heavy vehicles onto borough streets and local roads.

Transportation money should stay in transportation.

Turnpike debt and bureaucracy should be restructured.

And replacement revenue should be broad, transparent, dedicated, audited, and publicly accounted for.

This reform is built around one clear standard:

Fix Roads First. Lower transportation costs. Make road users pay fairly. Protect local communities. Track every dollar. Hold government accountable.

WHAT THIS PLAN WILL DO

This reform will:

• Phase out Pennsylvania's state gasoline tax over five years.

• Eliminate Pennsylvania's diesel tax for covered commercial vehicles as the replacement commercial road-use system becomes operational.

• Eliminate passenger and commuter tolls on Pennsylvania Turnpike roads through a responsible transition.

• Phase in a 3-percentage-point increase in Pennsylvania's state sales tax, from 6% to 9%, as the primary broad replacement source for the passenger-side transportation funding transition.

• Preserve existing protections for basic necessities under the broader tax-reform framework.

• Replace the commercial diesel-tax structure with a weight-based road-use charge on qualifying non-Turnpike Pennsylvania miles.

• Exclude Pennsylvania Turnpike miles from the commercial road-use charge because those miles are already subject to commercial Turnpike tolls.

• Reduce commercial Turnpike toll rates to make Turnpike travel more economically attractive.

• Provide significant discounts for qualifying small and independent commercial carriers.

• Encourage heavy through-truck traffic to use the Turnpike and other appropriate commercial corridors rather than borough streets and local roads.

• Penalize repeated toll-avoidance routing by heavy through-trucks where a reasonable Turnpike or designated commercial route is available.

• Protect legitimate local deliveries, pickups, farms, terminals, warehouses, job sites, fuel stops, businesses, and other necessary commercial access.

• Make Fix Roads First the governing transportation priority.

• Pause lower-priority expansion while the existing repair backlog is substantially reduced.

• Conduct comprehensive audits of transportation spending, contracts, debt, projects, and funding streams.

• Publish transportation spending, project costs, delays, infrastructure conditions, and repair progress through a statewide public dashboard.

• Protect municipal Liquid Fuels funding during the transition.

• Move inappropriate State Police expenses out of transportation accounts and into a transparent public-safety funding structure.

• Restructure Pennsylvania Turnpike legacy debt.

• Dissolve the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission as a separate statewide transportation bureaucracy and integrate appropriate functions into PennDOT.

• Protect essential transit and transportation services during the transition.

• Create dedicated transportation funding protections so replacement revenue cannot be quietly diverted.

• Prohibit counting the same revenue dollar toward both Transportation Reform and another major reform.

• Require ongoing fiscal review to make sure the transportation funding structure remains sufficient without collecting more than necessary.

1. PHASE OUT THE GASOLINE TAX OVER FIVE YEARS

Pennsylvania should not continue relying indefinitely on a tax that disproportionately affects people simply because they must drive.

The state gasoline tax would be phased out over five years.

The planned reduction schedule is:

• Year 1: 15% reduction
• Year 2: additional 15% reduction
• Year 3: additional 25% reduction
• Year 4: additional 25% reduction
• Year 5: remaining 20% eliminated

By the end of Year 5, the covered state gasoline tax would be eliminated.

The reduction would be coordinated with replacement transportation funding so Pennsylvania does not create an infrastructure funding crisis while delivering tax relief.

The objective is a permanent structural change.

It is not a temporary tax holiday followed by another increase later.

2. ELIMINATE PASSENGER AND COMMUTER TOLLS

Pennsylvania families should not have to continually pay tolls simply to travel across their own Commonwealth.

Passenger and commuter tolls on Pennsylvania Turnpike roads would be eliminated through a responsible transition.

That transition must account for:

• outstanding Turnpike debt
• lawful contractual obligations
• roadway operations
• maintenance
• bridge maintenance
• safety
• commercial toll revenue
• replacement transportation funding
• debt restructuring

The objective is permanent passenger-toll elimination.

It is not a temporary toll holiday.

During the transition, Pennsylvania would publicly report remaining passenger-toll revenue, debt obligations, replacement funding, and progress toward full elimination.

3. USE A 3-POINT SALES-TAX SHIFT AS THE PRIMARY PASSENGER-SIDE REPLACEMENT

Eliminating the state gasoline tax and passenger tolls removes major transportation revenue streams.

That revenue must be replaced honestly.

The transportation reform would phase in a 3-percentage-point increase in Pennsylvania's state sales tax, moving the state rate from 6% to 9%.

The 3-point rate was developed as part of the transportation funding model after examining the broader funding structure rather than assuming sales tax must replace every transportation dollar by itself.

The transportation system would continue receiving revenue from multiple sources, including appropriate:

• commercial Turnpike toll revenue
• commercial road-use revenue
• federal transportation funding
• existing state transportation revenue
• Liquid Fuels-related revenue
• investment and other lawful transportation income
• debt restructuring savings
• administrative and procurement savings
• recovered waste and improper expenditures
• other dedicated transportation sources

The commercial side of the reform is designed to largely replace the revenue currently collected through the diesel-tax structure through the new commercial road-use charge and continued commercial Turnpike tolling.

That means the 3-point sales-tax shift is not intended to separately replace the diesel tax dollar-for-dollar.

Its principal role is replacing the passenger-side revenue lost through elimination of the gasoline tax and passenger Turnpike tolls while supporting the broader statewide transportation system.

The rate would continue to be reviewed during implementation to verify that projected transportation revenue, commercial revenue, federal funding, debt restructuring, and savings are performing as expected.

Pennsylvania should collect what is necessary to maintain a stable transportation system.

It should not use transportation reform as an excuse to create an unnecessary surplus tax.

4. PROTECT BASIC NECESSITIES

Transportation reform should not lower the cost of driving by making necessities more expensive.

The broader tax-reform framework would continue protecting basic necessities from sales taxation where established by law.

Protected categories would include appropriate:

• groceries and basic food
• prescription medication
• essential medical care
• basic health services
• childcare
• rent
• residential utilities
• other legally protected necessities

Pennsylvania should not shift the burden from driving to eating, receiving medical treatment, paying rent, or keeping essential utilities on.

5. ELIMINATE THE DIESEL TAX FOR COVERED COMMERCIAL VEHICLES

Commercial transportation needs its own replacement structure.

Covered commercial vehicles would transition away from Pennsylvania's diesel-tax system as the new commercial road-use framework becomes operational.

Commercial transportation revenue would instead come from a combination of:

• reduced commercial Turnpike tolls
• weight-based road-use charges on qualifying non-Turnpike miles
• federal transportation funding
• other dedicated commercial and transportation revenue

The purpose is not to impose a mileage tax on top of the diesel tax.

The new system replaces the covered diesel-tax obligation.

6. CREATE A WEIGHT-BASED COMMERCIAL ROAD-USE CHARGE

Covered commercial vehicles would pay a weight-based road-use charge for qualifying Pennsylvania mileage traveled outside the Pennsylvania Turnpike system.

The working model uses three commercial weight categories with base rates of approximately:

• Lower covered class: 8 cents per mile
• Middle covered class: 12 cents per mile
• Heaviest covered class: 15 cents per mile

Final statutory weight boundaries would be established in the implementing legislation.

The principle is straightforward.

Heavier commercial vehicles generally impose greater wear on roads and bridges.

Their contribution should reflect that difference.

Rates would not automatically increase every year.

Any future adjustment would require a public fiscal review showing that additional revenue is actually necessary.

7. SEPARATE TURNPIKE MILES FROM TAXABLE ROAD-USE MILES

Commercial carriers should never be charged both a Pennsylvania Turnpike toll and the state commercial road-use charge for the same mile.

The system would calculate taxable mileage using:

TOTAL PENNSYLVANIA COMMERCIAL MILES

MINUS

VERIFIED PENNSYLVANIA TURNPIKE MILES

EQUALS

TAXABLE NON-TURNPIKE PENNSYLVANIA MILES

For example:

A carrier travels 40,000 miles in Pennsylvania during a reporting period.

12,000 of those miles are verified Pennsylvania Turnpike miles.

The commercial road-use charge would apply only to the remaining 28,000 non-Turnpike miles.

The carrier already paid the commercial Turnpike toll on the other 12,000 miles.

Pennsylvania would not charge both.

8. VERIFY TURNPIKE MILEAGE WITHOUT MANDATORY CONTINUOUS GPS TRACKING

Pennsylvania does not need to continuously track every commercial vehicle to administer this system.

Commercial mileage could be verified using existing records commonly maintained by carriers, together with Pennsylvania Turnpike transaction records.

Acceptable documentation could include:

• existing carrier mileage records
• IFTA-style mileage reporting
• electronic trip records
• odometer records
• dispatch records
• E-ZPass records
• Pennsylvania Turnpike toll transactions
• Toll By Plate records
• approved voluntary telematics systems
• other auditable commercial records

Pennsylvania Turnpike records would verify miles traveled on the Turnpike.

Those verified miles would then be deducted from the carrier's reported Pennsylvania mileage.

Carriers using approved electronic fleet-management or telematics systems could choose to automate this reporting.

But Pennsylvania would not require continuous state GPS tracking solely for collection of the commercial road-use charge.

Audits would focus on a reasonable sample of carriers and cases where reported mileage materially fails reconciliation.

The system should verify road use without unnecessarily creating a statewide commercial vehicle surveillance program.

9. LOWER COMMERCIAL TURNPIKE TOLLS

Pennsylvania should not eliminate passenger tolls by simply dumping the burden onto trucking companies.

Commercial Turnpike tolls would be reduced.

The working model uses approximately a 10% commercial toll reduction.

The final schedule would be subject to debt, infrastructure, traffic, and fiscal analysis.

Lower commercial toll rates are intended to:

• reduce carrier costs
• improve Pennsylvania competitiveness
• reduce shipping costs
• make the Turnpike more attractive for heavy through-traffic
• increase commercial Turnpike usage
• reduce diversion onto local roads
• reduce heavy-vehicle wear on roads not designed for sustained commercial traffic

The reform model anticipates that better commercial pricing can attract additional truck traffic to the Turnpike.

That increased usage helps offset part of the lower individual toll rate.

10. PROTECT SMALL AND INDEPENDENT CARRIERS

Independent truckers and small family-owned carriers should not be treated the same as national fleets with thousands of vehicles.

The working commercial model includes permanent small-carrier discounts.

Qualifying carriers with approximately:

• 1 to 6 power units: 25% discount on the applicable non-Turnpike road-use charge

• 7 to 20 power units: 20% discount on the applicable non-Turnpike road-use charge

The purpose is to keep the replacement structure from disproportionately harming small carriers.

Pennsylvania depends on independent truckers, local trucking companies, construction fleets, agricultural carriers, and family-owned transportation businesses.

The reform should recognize that.

11. ENCOURAGE HEAVY THROUGH-TRAFFIC TO USE THE TURNPIKE

Reducing commercial Turnpike rates is not only about lowering costs.

It is also a traffic-management strategy.

Pennsylvania should make the Turnpike economically attractive enough that commercial carriers have less reason to divert heavy through-traffic onto local roads solely to avoid tolls.

The Turnpike and major commercial corridors are generally better suited for sustained heavy-truck traffic than:

• borough streets
• residential roads
• small municipal roads
• historic downtown corridors
• roads with tight intersections
• routes not engineered for sustained heavy commercial use

Pricing should encourage the appropriate route first.

Enforcement should address deliberate abuse after that.

12. DISCOURAGE TOLL-AVOIDANCE ROUTING THROUGH LOCAL COMMUNITIES

Heavy commercial vehicles should not routinely use borough streets and local roads solely to avoid a reasonable Turnpike charge when an appropriate commercial route is available.

Repeated toll-avoidance routing could result in additional charges or penalties where:

• a reasonable Turnpike or designated commercial route is available
• the vehicle has no legitimate local destination
• the local route is being used primarily to avoid the applicable commercial charge
• restrictions are properly posted
• enforcement is authorized by law

This provision is aimed at through-traffic.

It is not intended to interfere with legitimate commerce.

13. PROTECT LEGITIMATE LOCAL COMMERCIAL ACCESS

No commercial carrier should be penalized simply because it has legitimate business in a local community.

Exempt legitimate activity would include appropriate:

• deliveries
• pickups
• farms
• warehouses
• terminals
• distribution centers
• construction sites
• industrial facilities
• repair facilities
• fuel stops
• restaurants
• hotels
• customer locations
• local businesses
• emergency detours
• highway closures
• legally required routes

The purpose is to keep unnecessary heavy through-traffic off inappropriate local streets.

It is not to prevent trucks from serving Pennsylvania communities.

14. MAKE FIX ROADS FIRST THE GOVERNING PRIORITY

Pennsylvania should maintain the infrastructure taxpayers already paid for before continually building lower-priority new projects.

Fix Roads First would prioritize:

• structurally deficient bridges
• dangerous roadway conditions
• pavement deterioration
• drainage
• retaining walls
• bridge rehabilitation
• high-crash locations
• safety improvements
• maintenance
• preservation of existing infrastructure

Lower-priority expansion projects would be paused while the existing repair backlog is substantially reduced.

The reform target is to reduce the repair backlog by at least 50% before broad lower-priority expansion resumes.

Necessary safety and capacity projects could continue when justified.

Fix Roads First does not mean Pennsylvania never builds anything new.

It means government must justify building something new while existing infrastructure continues deteriorating.

15. AUDIT EVERY MAJOR TRANSPORTATION FUNDING STREAM

Pennsylvania should understand where transportation money is going before asking taxpayers for more.

A comprehensive audit would examine:

• PennDOT
• Pennsylvania Turnpike spending
• Motor License Fund expenditures
• federal transportation funding
• fuel-tax revenue
• toll revenue
• commercial road-use revenue
• Liquid Fuels distributions
• bond proceeds
• major construction contracts
• consulting agreements
• project delays
• change orders
• debt obligations
• administrative spending
• underused assets
• stalled projects
• expansion projects

Auditors would identify:

• waste
• duplication
• inflated costs
• unnecessary administration
• poor procurement
• contract failures
• avoidable delays
• debt-refinancing opportunities
• deferred maintenance
• projects that no longer justify their cost

16. CREATE ONE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION DASHBOARD

Pennsylvanians should be able to see where transportation money goes.

A statewide dashboard would publish appropriate information including:

• project name
• location
• county
• project purpose
• original cost estimate
• current estimated cost
• amount spent
• funding source
• contractor
• original completion date
• current completion date
• delays
• change orders
• roadway condition
• bridge condition
• repair-backlog progress
• gasoline-tax phaseout progress
• diesel-tax transition
• passenger-toll elimination
• commercial toll revenue
• commercial road-use revenue
• sales-tax transportation revenue
• Turnpike debt
• debt-service costs
• administrative expenses
• audit findings
• corrective actions

Major cost overruns and delays should require a public explanation.

Spending is not the result.

Infrastructure condition is the result.

17. PROTECT LOCAL LIQUID FUELS FUNDING

Counties and municipalities rely on Liquid Fuels distributions for roads, bridges, drainage, snow removal, maintenance, and local transportation needs.

That funding should not disappear because Pennsylvania reforms its statewide transportation system.

Liquid Fuels support would be protected during the transition.

Distribution formulas could later be reviewed using appropriate factors such as:

• road mileage
• population
• infrastructure condition
• usage
• local need
• fiscal capacity

Transportation reform should not simply transfer Harrisburg's funding problem onto local taxpayers.

18. STOP USING TRANSPORTATION MONEY AS A CATCH-ALL FUND

Money collected for transportation should primarily support transportation.

Pennsylvania should stop treating drivers and transportation accounts as an easy funding source whenever another government obligation needs money.

Transportation revenue should not be diverted without:

• clear legal authority
• public reporting
• transparent accounting
• a legitimate transportation purpose

If government collects money for transportation, taxpayers should see transportation results.

19. MOVE INAPPROPRIATE STATE POLICE COSTS INTO PUBLIC SAFETY

Pennsylvania State Police provide an essential statewide public-safety service.

They should be funded transparently through public-safety funding rather than relying on transportation accounts for costs that do not properly belong there.

The transition would be coordinated with:

• statewide police coverage
• municipalities relying on State Police
• regional policing
• rural coverage
• municipal fiscal capacity
• Public Safety Reform
• Property Tax Reform

Transportation reform should not weaken Pennsylvania State Police.

It should make their funding more honest.

20. RESTRUCTURE PENNSYLVANIA TURNPIKE DEBT

Passenger tolls cannot be responsibly eliminated without addressing Turnpike debt.

Pennsylvania would conduct a full review of:

• outstanding debt
• interest rates
• maturity schedules
• refinancing opportunities
• legacy state-imposed obligations
• annual debt service
• commercial toll revenue
• replacement transportation revenue

Debt that can be lawfully and responsibly refinanced should be restructured.

Legacy obligations imposed on the Turnpike for broader state purposes should be separated from the actual cost of operating and maintaining the roadway.

Passenger tolls should not continue forever simply because previous governments created enormous long-term obligations.

21. DISSOLVE THE PENNSYLVANIA TURNPIKE COMMISSION

Pennsylvania does not need two separate statewide highway bureaucracies operating indefinitely.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission would be dissolved as a separate transportation agency through an orderly transition.

Appropriate:

• operations
• employees
• maintenance responsibilities
• assets
• contracts
• liabilities
• debt-management functions
• institutional knowledge

would be integrated into PennDOT or the appropriate successor structure.

The transition would:

• protect roadway safety
• preserve uninterrupted operation
• honor lawful contracts
• honor lawful debt
• protect appropriate employees
• reduce unnecessary administrative duplication
• consolidate procurement where beneficial
• improve statewide planning
• unify public reporting

The Turnpike roadway remains.

The duplicate bureaucracy does not.

22. CREATE A DEDICATED TRANSPORTATION FUNDING STRUCTURE

Transportation replacement revenue should remain transportation revenue.

The system would separately track:

• transportation sales-tax revenue
• remaining gasoline-tax revenue during phaseout
• remaining diesel-tax revenue during transition
• passenger-toll revenue during transition
• commercial Turnpike toll revenue
• commercial road-use revenue
• federal transportation funding
• Liquid Fuels distributions
• PennDOT spending
• debt payments
• transit funding
• infrastructure spending
• administrative expenses
• reserves

Dedicated transportation revenue should not become a general-government slush fund.

23. PROHIBIT DOUBLE-COUNTING REPLACEMENT REVENUE

Pennsylvania is pursuing several major tax reforms.

One dollar cannot fund two promises.

Transportation replacement revenue would therefore be separately identified from revenue assigned to:

• Property Tax Reform
• Education Reform
• healthcare
• public safety
• other tax reductions
• other state programs

If a dollar is committed to replacing transportation revenue, it cannot simultaneously be counted toward another reform.

That accounting should be visible to the public.

24. REQUIRE CONTINUING REVENUE SUFFICIENCY REVIEW

The 3-point sales-tax shift was developed as the transportation replacement target based on the broader revenue structure.

But Pennsylvania should verify the numbers during implementation.

Annual transportation funding reviews would compare:

• projected revenue
• actual sales-tax transportation revenue
• commercial road-use revenue
• commercial Turnpike revenue
• federal transportation funding
• debt savings
• audit savings
• administrative savings
• infrastructure obligations
• Liquid Fuels distributions
• transit obligations
• debt service
• reserves

If the transportation system is producing more recurring revenue than necessary, policymakers should examine whether transportation tax burdens can be reduced.

If revenues materially underperform, government must first examine spending, debt, savings, commercial collections, and available transportation funding before automatically raising taxes.

The objective is sufficient funding.

Not maximum taxation.

25. PROTECT ESSENTIAL TRANSIT AND TRANSPORTATION SERVICES

Pennsylvania transportation includes more than privately owned automobiles.

The transition must protect legitimate responsibilities including:

• public transit
• rural transportation
• paratransit
• senior transportation
• disability transportation
• municipal roads
• bridges
• freight corridors
• appropriate multimodal infrastructure

Public funding recipients would remain subject to:

• audits
• performance review
• procurement standards
• public reporting
• fiscal accountability

Protecting essential service does not mean protecting waste.

26. PREVENT ANOTHER HIDDEN TRANSPORTATION TAX

Pennsylvania should not eliminate fuel taxes and passenger tolls only to recreate them under another name.

The reform would oppose replacement schemes based primarily on:

• disguised motorist fees
• arbitrary passenger-vehicle surcharges
• unnecessary licensing increases
• continuous mileage surveillance of ordinary drivers
• new commuter tolls
• hidden transportation assessments
• substitute authority charges

Any future transportation funding mechanism should disclose:

• how much it raises
• who pays
• why it is needed
• what existing burden it replaces
• where the money goes
• the net effect on taxpayers

Tax relief must be real.

27. HOLD FAILED PROJECTS AND CONTRACTORS ACCOUNTABLE

Major transportation projects should have measurable expectations.

Repeated or material failures involving:

• major cost overruns
• missed deadlines
• defective work
• contract violations
• procurement failures
• inaccurate estimates
• unnecessary change orders
• safety failures

could trigger:

• independent audit
• contract review
• repayment
• clawbacks
• penalties
• debarment where legally appropriate
• leadership review
• revised project management
• public hearings

Taxpayers should not repeatedly pay for the same failure.

28. BUILD A RESPONSIBLE TRANSITION

Transportation reform of this scale cannot happen overnight without creating unnecessary fiscal and operational risk.

Implementation would be phased.

During the transition:

• the gasoline tax declines over five years
• the diesel-tax replacement system becomes operational
• passenger tolls move toward elimination
• commercial Turnpike tolls are reduced
• the commercial road-use system begins
• Turnpike miles are excluded from the road-use charge
• small-carrier protections begin
• local-road diversion enforcement begins
• the 3-point sales-tax shift is phased in
• Turnpike debt is restructured
• Turnpike governance is consolidated
• Liquid Fuels funding is protected
• State Police funding is moved to public safety
• audits and public dashboards begin
• Fix Roads First begins immediately

Urgent repairs and accountability reforms should not wait until the entire financial transition is complete.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR PENNSYLVANIA

For passenger drivers:

A five-year gasoline-tax phaseout, permanent passenger-toll elimination, better roads and bridges, and less dependence on taxing people every time they drive.

For commuters:

Permanent relief from passenger Turnpike tolls and greater focus on maintaining the infrastructure they already use.

For families:

Lower direct transportation costs, continued protection for basic necessities, safeguards against hidden replacement fees, and transparent reporting of the transportation tax shift.

For independent truckers and small carriers:

Elimination of the covered diesel tax, reduced Turnpike tolls, small-carrier road-use discounts, no road-use charge on Turnpike miles, and no mandatory continuous state GPS tracking.

For larger commercial carriers:

A predictable weight- and mileage-based system, lower commercial Turnpike rates, no double charging, and clearer rules for Pennsylvania transportation costs.

For boroughs and local communities:

Less unnecessary heavy through-truck traffic on streets not designed for it while preserving legitimate access for deliveries, farms, businesses, construction, warehouses, and other local commerce.

For municipalities:

Protected Liquid Fuels funding and a statewide reform that does not simply shift transportation costs onto local property taxpayers.

For State Police:

A transparent public-safety funding structure rather than inappropriate dependence on transportation accounts.

For taxpayers:

A dedicated transportation funding system, debt transparency, audits, public dashboards, no double-counted revenue, ongoing sufficiency reviews, and consequences when projects or contracts fail.

For Pennsylvania:

A transportation system focused on fixing existing roads and bridges, lowering costs, modernizing commercial road funding, reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, protecting local communities, and making every major transportation dollar easier to follow.

BOTTOM LINE

Pennsylvania families and businesses are paying too much for transportation while too much infrastructure remains in poor condition.

The answer is not another patch.

It is to restructure the system.

Phase out the gasoline tax.

Eliminate passenger tolls.

Replace the diesel tax with a fair commercial road-use system.

Charge commercial vehicles only for non-Turnpike road-use miles while they continue paying reduced commercial Turnpike tolls on Turnpike miles.

Do not double-charge them.

Do not require continuous government GPS tracking.

Protect independent truckers and small carriers.

Make the Turnpike affordable enough to attract more heavy through-traffic onto roads designed for it.

Keep unnecessary through-truck traffic off borough streets while protecting legitimate local commerce.

Fix the roads and bridges taxpayers already paid for.

Protect local Liquid Fuels funding.

Restructure Turnpike debt.

Dissolve unnecessary duplicate transportation bureaucracy.

Move inappropriate State Police costs into public safety.

Use the 3-point sales-tax shift together with commercial revenue, federal funding, existing transportation revenue, debt restructuring, and savings to replace the old funding structure.

Audit the numbers every year.

Track every dollar.

And lower the burden if the reformed system produces more revenue than Pennsylvania actually needs.

The standard is clear:

Fix Roads First. Eliminate Passenger Tolls. Cut Fuel Taxes. Lower Costs. Protect Communities. Hold Government Accountable.