For the past eight years, every new year resulted in toll increases on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Come next January, make it nine.

Things won't be getting any better any time soon. In fact, Mark Compton, the commission's CEO, warned drivers to expect 6 percent annual toll increases until at least 2044, maybe longer.The commission announced this week that the next toll increase for all E-ZPass and cash transactions will become effective at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 8, 2017. At one time, E-ZPass tagholders caught a break over cash-paying customers, but not this time. Rates for both will be going up the same 6 percent."While we will continue to mitigate toll increases through boosted efficiencies, we have no option but to increase tolls annually," Compton said.If there is one glimmer of good news in this depressing announcement, it's the fact that tolls will not increase next year on the turnpike's Delaware River Bridge cashless tolling point northeast of Philadelphia. Of course, this will have minimal impact on drivers in our area.The rate increase is troubling news for many Carbon County workers who commute to the Lehigh Valley via the Mahoning Valley interchange of the Northeast Extension.Now, the driver of a car pays $2.55 each way between the points near Lehighton and Allentown. By 2044, the cost will have ballooned to $12.24 each way, assuming the 6 percent annual increases are implemented as planned.This means a Carbon County commuter who has a job in the Allentown area will pay about $25 a day, or $125 a week in turnpike tolls in 2044.County residents who like to take in a Phillies or Flyers game every now and then currently spend $4.99 to get off at the Mid-County toll plaza. By 2044, that amount will explode to nearly $26 each way. So, on top of all of the other growing costs to see a sports or music event, motorists will have to plunk down more than $50 in tolls round-trip in 2044.Those unlucky enough to be driving a Class 2 vehicle, such as the wildly popular Ford F-150 pickup, now pay $2.70 to travel from the Mahoning Valley to the Lehigh Valley interchanges; this toll will go to $12.96 each way by 2044.These same truck drivers, who now pay $7.69 each way to go between Mahoning Valley and Mid-County, will pay $39.41 each way in 2044, assuming a 6 percent annual increase.If you think those rates are staggering, cash customers pay about 55 percent more than E-ZPass customers.Because of these eye-popping numbers, we can safely predict that, at some point between now and then, motorists will be looking at alternate routes to escape the onerous toll charges.What's going on that requires this constant significant annual increase?Turnpike chairman Sean Logan said the toll increase will fund a decadelong $5.77 billion spending program. Much of It will pay for ongoing reconstruction and widening projects.If you've driven from Lehighton to the Philadelphia area during the past three years, you have been seeing that the turnpike between Allentown and Mid-County is being widened in stages from four to six lanes.The General Assembly three years ago passed Act 89, which amended a 2007 law that requires the commission to pay PennDOT $450 million a year so the state can fix non-turnpike roads and fund public bus and subway systems. This amount will drop to $50 million a year starting in 2023.We ask the obvious question: What has happened to that incredible pot of money that has been coming in annually to improve infrastructure - roads and bridges - after the state eliminated the cap on wholesale gasoline prices in 2013?This controversial bill has been phasing in an estimated 28-cent-a-gallon increase over a five-year period. We are in year three of implementation, and already Pennsylvania has the highest gasoline tax in the nation.According to a tax policy group, Pennsylvania has a 50.4-cents-per-gallon tax, followed by Washington State at 44.5 cents, then New York state at 42.64 cents. Drivers who buy gas in Alaska pay the lowest rate at 12.25 cents. By the way, these figures do not include the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax.So, we motorists are getting the dirty end of the stick and being hit hard on two key fronts - higher turnpike tolls on the one hand and higher gasoline taxes on the other. And, woe unto us - both will be going up again in 2017 - and beyond.What really angers me is that two years ago we taxpayers paid nearly $300,000 in legal fees in a turnpike corruption scandal. Eric Epstein, one of the founders of a government reform group called Rock the Capital, said it perfectly: "Only in Pennsylvania can you mug the taxpayers and charge them legal fees."On top of that, some of the defendants got to keep their state pensions by pleading guilty to lesser charges of conflict of interest. The officials who worked at the commission during the Ed Rendell administration were charged with influence-peddling and bid-rigging.Prosecutors said the defendants received campaign gifts such as meals, sports tickets, limo rides and travel in return for lucrative state turnpike contracts, terming it a "pay-to-play" scheme.Instances such as this make people angry and skeptical about government, and we have every right to ask, "Who is working for whom?"By Bruce Frassinelli |

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