But there are serious federal barriers to widespread tolling on existing interstates that could burst the bubble in Harrisburg.
"There's a lot less of what they're looking for than they seem to think," said Robert Poole, a transportation expert and toll-road advocate with the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank he founded. "They've got to have some reality in this debate."
State House Democrats are pushing a transportation-funding plan that would toll I-80, an east-west route through northern Pennsylvania. Their proposal was debated Thursday night, but did not come to a vote. House Republicans have responded that rural Pennsylvanians should not bear the brunt of tolls, and have suggested a much wider network of toll roads.
"We feel that the users of I-80 alone should not fund the entire transportation system," said Stephen Miskin, a top aide to House Republicans. "Look at I-95 - it's tolled in New Jersey and in Delaware, why not in Pennsylvania? It would provide a way to help defray its own maintenance costs."
Miskin said the Schuylkill Expressway was a less likely candidate for tolls.
"I think that would cause a stir," he said. "We're looking at cross-state roads, not just an internal road."
Rep. Richard Geist (R., Blair), the minority chairman of the transportation committee, said he planned to introduce a proposal Monday to permit a wide range of "public-private partnerships," including tolling of new and existing highways.
Two of Geist's favorite ideas are to toll I-95 around a yet-to-be-built connection to the Pennsylvania Turnpike and to add a new toll lane to the Schuylkill Expressway, either adjacent to or above the existing lanes.
"You would always have the option of being on the Schuylkill parking lot for free or pay to ride the fast lane," Geist said yesterday.
