Glenn Thompson Reiterates Opposition to I-80 Tolls
Statement
Glenn Thompson Reiterates Opposition to I-80 Tolls
After two days touring communities along the Interstate 80 Corridor, Glenn Thompson, candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania's Fifth District, took the opportunity to express his continued opposition to the state's plan to impose tolls.
"I appreciate the time Mayor John Stroup of Clarion spent with me and I have come away with a renewed understanding of just how devastating this toll plan is. I have seen first hand the companies that would be affected and I have met the people who will lose their jobs if this plan is allowed to move forward."
Thompson spent all day Monday examining the industries and communities of Clarion County, and all of Tuesday making the same study of Jefferson County.
"What the state fails to understand," Thompson said, "is that these communities have spent forty years developing a business model that relies on free access to a major highway. Massive amounts of private money, along with equally large amounts of federal, state, and local dollars have gone into the development of industrial parks and businesses based entirely on interstate access. This is not the Turnpike, where different models have been used, over the same period of time, based on tolled transportation."
"Tolling would devastate these communities and it would close businesses built on reliance that the state and federal governments would keep their word that access would always be free. Further, I do not accept the distinction the state offers, that tolls are not taxes. When, at the end of the day, people have less money in their pockets and governments have more, that's a tax, call it what you will. In Northwest Pennsylvania, we do not need more taxes."
Thompson has spent the last year working against tolling in the Centre County region, and has made that position an integral part of his Congressional campaign.
"The Federal Highway Administration has the last word on this and I plan to do whatever is in my power to influence the decision. We do not need a whole new layer of taxation in the Fifth District. The economy is challenging enough already."
Source