Cute_Platypus_5989 t1_jd9o71t wrote on March 22, 2023 at 8:48 PM

Reply to comment by Unfamiliar_Word in But we have roads and they are better than anyone else’s. by eltruteht

Crazy how 500 million dollars of miss appropriated dollars is no big deal. I bet you could fix a bridge or a road with that.

Unfamiliar_Word t1_jda0u8o wrote on March 22, 2023 at 10:12 PM

PennDoT's fiscal staff would certainly rather be rid of the transfer to the Pennsylvani State Police, which is a complaint that might conceivably have existed in some form since at least the fifties, but I mean to suggest that the transfer is not enough to account for the differential in tax rates.

The most recent Governor's Executive Budget shows that the Motor License Fund had revenues of $ 2.9 billion in fiscal year 2021-2022, (page 58) which the most recent year that actual revenues are available for, and that the Pennsylvania State Police received $ 0.5 billion from the Motor License Fund (page 565). So the State Police receive 17.7 % of Motor License Fund Revenues; that's a consequential amount, but I'm skeptical that it accounts for fuel taxes being so much higher than in neighboring states. (Governor Shapiro's budget calls for the PSP to receive only $ 400 million of Motor License Fund revenue for the coming fiscal year)

If the transfer were eliminated, it would need to be compensated for by some mixture of lowering PSP expenditures by more than a third, reducing other programs so that funding could be transferred to the PSP or introducing a new revenue source. It's not surprising that the General Assembly and Governor have neglected to make those choices for so long or that they should have relied upon a way to keep part of the PSP budget off the the General Fund's books.

Cute_Platypus_5989 t1_jda4xd9 wrote on March 22, 2023 at 10:41 PM

Do you know what happens if you are in charge of the little league financial i.e. bank account and you decide to give the security guard 500$? That's right you are charged with a crime. Somehow if the state does the same thing but gives it to the police it is 100% ok. I guess in all honesty we are luck the thin blue line did not take it all. After all they are all that keeps Americans safe and free.

Unfamiliar_Word t1_jda93cu wrote on March 22, 2023 at 11:10 PM

It's not a crime, it's a policy and an long running one.

Article VIII § 11 (a) of the Constitution of Pennsylvania restricts, "proceeds from gasoline and other motor fuel excise taxes, motor vehicle registration fees and license taxes, operators' license fees and other excise taxes imposed on products used in motor transportation," to be, "used solely for construction, reconstruction, maintenance and repair of and safety on public highways and bridges and costs and expenses incident thereto." (Emphasis mine.)

Law enforcement patrols of highways seems easily construed as falling within the remit of the authorization to use motor vehicle revenues for, "safety on public highways," or even, "incident thereto." The practice has been in place for a long time. Governor Raymond P. Shafer's FY 1969 - 1970 Governor's Executive Budget refers expressly to this function such as on page 52 (actually page 60 of the file), where it states that the Motor License Fund, "finances State Police highway patrol operation."

Whether PSP highway safety operations cost half a billion dollars is another question and one that I imagine would be practically difficult to assess, much less implement a policy relative to. To some extent, recent administrations seem to have considered that it might not as the size of the transfer has been gradually reduced over the foregoing several years. Even if it is wholly eliminated that does not mean that difficult questions about the funds available PennDoT and the PSP will be avoided.

Cute_Platypus_5989 t1_jda9yen wrote on March 22, 2023 at 11:16 PM

No I'm sure PSP cost over a billion. They get tax dollars from other social programs I am sure. It sure seems that we pay an awful lot For bridge's to fall down.

ewyorksockexchange t1_jdas6ys wrote on March 23, 2023 at 1:26 AM

Not sure why this is downvoted, it’s completely accurate.

To add to this, PSP is solely responsible for all policing over 75% of PA geographic area (and around 50% of the state’s population). That’s a lot of traffic enforcement cost. I’m spitballing here, but given the compensation package the troopers enjoy, it’s not out of the question that payroll costs alone could be north of $200k per trooper annually, plus vehicles, maintenance, technology, overhead, etc. I believe the state police now have to actually prove enforcement costs to receive MLF dollars. While some creative accounting on their part is not out of the question, the costs they incur enforcing traffic rules for a full 3/4 of the state could certainly be in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually.