Penn Pike's Timothy Carson replies to TOLLROADSnews Act 44 misinformation charge

Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) vice-chairman Timothy Carson has written us a 2-page letter in response to our report of their misinformation on Act 44 specifying toll caps. He denies that he or anyone else at the PTC has said that Act 44 caps toll increases at 25% initially and 3% per year thereafter. His denial is ridiculous.

We reproduced the slide from his standard powerpoint presentation where he says under the heading "Act 44 Basic Structure" "Permitted Toll increases - 25% in 2010 and 3%/yr thereafter..."

He is discussing Act 44. Every slide in the sequence of slides on Act 44 has Act 44 on the green header above. The slide says toll increases of 25% and 3%/yr are "permitted." This in the context of other items which ARE in Act 44 such as the authority to pledge Motor License Funds and to monetize the existing system and the billions of dollars authorized by law to be borrowed.

The Carson slide clearly says Act 44 has permitted, or given permission for the 25% and 3% toll increases. To say 25% and 3% increases are "permitted" in the context of a discussion of Act 44 is to say they are legal caps.

It cannot be understood any other way.

We also drew attention to the 2-page "press kit" on the PTC website which again under the heading Act 44 Focus lists various items which are in Act 44 and also states: "Turnpike mainline tolls will increase 25 percent in 2009 and 3 percent each successive year."

This doesn't say explicitly that Act 44 permits 25% and 3% toll increases like the Carson slide, but by its location among points from Act 44 and under a heading Act 44 Focus it gives the reader the impression that 25% and 3% toll increases are part of Act 44.

These are just two cases where we have found documentation of the PTC deception. We have other anecdotal accounts of PTC spreading the same misinformation.

Pennsylvania newspapers and radio picked up the notion of 25% and 3% as Act 44 caps, and have been routinely reporting this. We did too.

They had us all fooled, for a while.

Carson says this is all a "red herring." We should be discussing the Chicago Skyway, Indiana and New Jersey and the wrongheadedness of the Governor's plan to get private sector bids for his Turnpike.

Wrong.

It is a scandal when a public authority muddies the debate with misinformation about the law. And it is doubly scandalous when they have the chutzpah, after getting caught, to try claim they never said what they plainly did say, and were saying repeatedly.

How were people expected to understand "Permitted" toll increases in an exposition of Act 44 in Carson's slide? If not permitted by the law then how were the toll increases "permitted"? By whom? His letter to TOLLROADSnews doesn't tell us.

After the brazen denial it goes off to debate the general issues of Rendell vs PTC.

Carson's denial is absurd, and his brazen attempt now to deny he said what he clearly said is disgraceful.

Here is the full text of Timothy Carson's letter to TOLLROADSnews:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/TC-TRnews.pdf

Here is our report that Carson is responding to:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3364

Here is Carson's slide presentation: http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/TCslides.pdf

Here the PTC press kit on Act 44: http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/presskit.pdf

TOLLROADSnews 2008-01-28