Now comes word that we'll be paying more to drive anyway. According to The Patriot News, the state gas tax will soon be going up eight cents per gallon at the beginning of the year, and turnpike tolls will increase six percent. And if the Consumer Price Index goes up in February, so will vehicle registration and driver's license fees. Next year, the state will stop issuing vehicle registration stickers, which means police will have to buy license readers for which we, the public, will pay. Oh yeah, inspection stickers will go up $1.
This money is supposed to be used to fix the state's crumbling roads. But instead, Governor Wolf is diverting the money to fund state police coverage in communities too cheap to pay their own way. These include communities like Lower Macungie and Upper Mount Bethel, whose police coverage is being subsidized by the poor in Allentown and Easton.
Governor Wolf's office claims it has no clue on how to make up the shortfall.
The answer, obviously, is too assess any community that fails to provide for its own police coverage.
Vehicle registrations also go up. Passenger vehicles are now $41.
ReplyDeleteOnce again the citizens of Lehigh/Northampton Counties who pay municipal taxes for police coverage and services must pay for state police coverage and services to municipalities who thumb their nose for local police services. Currently 9 out of 15 Townships in Lehigh County and 9 municipalities [5 Borough & 4 Townships] in Northampton County do not have local police services and rely on the rest of us to pay for their State Police coverage.
ReplyDeleteEvery year there is a proposal to levy a fee for State Police coverage, however, it dies in committee and it is never brought to a full vote of the legislature. In essence, this is double taxation at its best. Lower Macungie Township is one of the most lucrative and largest townships in the Lehigh Valley, but their residents rely on state police. These fat cats love big government surpluses, beautiful parks with astro-turf, low taxes and first-rate shopping centers; while the rest of the valley, especially in the inner cities suffer the consequences of double taxation.
First off you can thank the wonderful conservative "T" section of the state. Those good old conservative Republicans block any discussion much les vote on paying fees for state police coverage. Of course we have our own on the cheap municipalities right her in the LV. Lower Macungie Twp. A bastion of tea party principles is another freeloader. They sit in their multiple gated communities listening to Fox News all day. They hate government subsidization and welfare but love free police coverage.
ReplyDeleteThe time has come to stop this nonsense and hit them with a user fee.
Also look at the conservative Republican Northampton County Council that is still plotting to slap another five dollars on our registration costs.
So much for conservative no "hidden" tax agendas and principles. Bullshit!!
Assuming that the 'fee's ' for 'who bought what vehicle'--that are paid to NorCo would then be public information -I would think that the poorer municipalities then could use it to cross reference residency and income taxes that are being avoided by so many -and then collect them . OH ,we could think of a multitude of marketing ideas in addition, to non-compliance issues.
ReplyDeleteGreat, everything goes up but our NC salaries to keep up with normal everyday living.
ReplyDeleteGovernor Wolf is not the one diverting the funds. It was part of the Act 89 legislation that was passed during Gov. Corbett's tenure.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a R vs. D issue. This is legislators not reading the fine print.
If there was ever a swamp that needed draining it is located in Harrisburg. 6:38 is correct. R's and D's are both equally guilty of not reading the fine print and fully understanding the impacts of the legislation that they pass. Add this issue to the long line of badly written but approved legislation related to gambling, NIZs and CRIZs, liquor sales etc and it is quite apparent how poorly Pennsylvania is governed.
ReplyDeleteYou will NEVER drain the Harrisburg swamp by re-electing the current class of State Reps and Senators.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot Allen Township, Lower Mount Bethel Township, William Township and I believe Glendon -- I for one am getting tired of being the not profit funding for these never ending proposals to fix and repair (fill in the Blank) !! A poor excuse to pick a man's pocket And you are correct, why should a resident in Nazareth, ( that has a combined police force Colonial Regional) be handing over money in fees and gas taxes to make sure that the tax payers in other communities are safe with police coverage by the State PSP.
ReplyDeleteThe free state police is a Republican problem. They are the ones holding back a bill that would impose a user fee for PSP. While a nobel gesture, PSP suggest they love serving the township and want to expand it to the schools. Now the gas tax that was to fund infrastructure improvements is being used to fund PSP. It is time the PSP is given some relief and LMT carrys their own water for a change. It is like getting $5M handout every year and then these same Conservatives lecture us on other programs and entitlement reform.
ReplyDeleteState police costs from the Motor License Fund have risen from $368 million in 2004 to $802 million this year. That's a lot of miles of roads that could be fixed.
ReplyDeleteThe PSP are asked by Republican state legislators if they are OK with covering municipalities, what do you think they will answer? Of course they will say they are OK with it. Republicans rule the state of PA, the hillbilly rep's want to hear a yes answer and the wise PSP says yes. They are not going to bite the hands that feed them.
ReplyDeleteFor every Schlossbertg there are 50 Marcia Hahn's and 50 Pat Brownes'.
Horse crap- fee this and that-issue every legal residence a shotgun and the matter will quite down ---soon.Kennesaw,GA. has almost no crime.
ReplyDeleteFrom Keystone Crossroads....
ReplyDeleteAccording PSP, 1,287 of the 2,561 municipalities in PA have no local police force. and rely entirely on the state police for all criminal, traffic and public safety proceedings. They pay no additional fees for those services, and still collect half of the fines from traffic tickets.
A 2012 report suggest, PSP spent $540 million to provide policing municipalities without local forces, nearly half the agency's annual budget.
http://crossroads.newsworks.org/index.php/local/keystone-crossroads/93369-half-of-pa-municipalities-rely-fully-on-state-police
For reference Lehigh County municipalities with no local police
ReplyDeletecoverage
Hanover
Heidelberg
Lower Milford (just disbanded)
Lower Macungie
Low hill
Lynn
North Whitehall
Upper Milford
Washington
Weisenberg
Northampton County
Allen
Chapman (contracts with Moore Township last I heard)
East Allen
Glendon (at one time contracted with Easton for police and fire ended a couple years ago)
Lowe Mr Bethel
Upper Mt Behel
West Easton ( had contract with Easton, contracted ended. Looking into starting a new department)
Williams
List does not included Departments that go out of service and then switch to PSP coverage.
Hank_Hill
Thanks very much, Hank.I will post this.
ReplyDeleteThis issue is at least 30 years old. State Transportation Advisory Committee issued a report in the mid-80s that recommended taking PSP funding out of the transportation budget and placing it in the general budget. The problem has always been the same - if funding for PSP is taken out of the transportation budget and that money is used to repair infrastructure, NEW money has to be found in the general budget.
ReplyDeleteThat's not a problem. New revenue can be found by assessing municipalities who refuse to provide police coverage for their residents. Those bills have been on the books for years, butthere appears to be no political will to do the right thing.
ReplyDelete