Harrisburg, PA – September 19, 2023 – State Senator Lisa M. Boscola (D-Northampton County) is pleased to announce that her legislation, SB473, aimed at addressing the issue of unpaid Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls, was favorably passed by the Senate Transportation Committee in a 13 to 1 vote, with Sen. Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny County) voting in opposition. The bill, which proposes garnishing offenders’ Pennsylvania Lottery winnings and state income tax returns to repay unpaid tolls, now moves forward with significant bipartisan backing.
Senator Boscola, the driving force behind SB473, emphasized the importance of the bill, stating, “Law-abiding Pennsylvanians have been paying their fair share. Yet, repeated offenders are getting away without paying. If we don’t go after them with more effective methods, more and more will try to avoid paying…then the whole system falls apart.”
This legislation, first introduced in 2022, came in response to a report that same year by the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which revealed a staggering projected loss of $155 million in unpaid tolls from April 2021 to March 2022—a 49% increase from the previous year’s $105 million. For 2023, the Turnpike reported the loss due to unpaid tolls had risen to $170 million, up an additional $15 million from the past year.
In expressing her gratitude for the bipartisan support, Senator Boscola remarked, “I want to extend my sincere thanks to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for recognizing the importance of this bill. We needed to come up with a creative method to maximize collections so we can reinvest those funds in Turnpike improvement projects.”
SB473 now moves to the Senate floor for further consideration, bringing Pennsylvania one step closer to addressing toll evasion effectively and supporting critical infrastructure improvements.
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