Dec 3, 2020 3 min read

Help could be on the way for PennDOT highway and bridge projects that appeared to be in jeopardy, state Treasurer Joe Torsella announced Wednesday.

“Treasury stands ready to provide the short-term assistance needed to keep projects in motion that provide jobs to Pennsylvanians and strengthen our infrastructure,” Torsella said in a news release.

“We have been hard at work with legislative leaders and the administration on this issue, and as treasurer I am prepared to authorize financial support to the Motor License Fund, potentially through the end of this fiscal year.”

The state’s fiscal year ends June 30, but Torsella aims to prevent immediate shutdowns of highway and safety projects that had been threatened as early as this month because of lack of funding.

Torsella, who was not elected to a second term and will be out of office in early January, said he has fielded inquiries from Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, and has consulted with Senate leadership and the budget office of Gov. Tom Wolf.

In his letter to Benninghoff, Torsella noted the Motor License Fund has a “current balance of $53 million higher than at the same date last fiscal year … Based on historical expenditure levels, Treasury projects (the fund) will maintain sufficient cash flow to ensure timely funding of Highway and Safety and line-item projects through most of the current fiscal year.”

Alexis Campbell, PennDOT press secretary wrote in response to an email inquiry that, as a stopgap measure, the governor has directed her department to anticipate pending and expected reimbursements to cover current construction and design expenses in the short term.

“This is not a long-term solution, as those reimbursements ultimately require matching state revenues to sustain, but all current sources are dedicated for other coming expenditures that must be reconciled as part of a true fix,” she responded.

“While the temporary fix affords us the opportunity to make payments on existing work, new projects are on hold until a more definitive solution is available. We will evaluate emergency needs, such as a slide repair on a high volume road, to see that we can advance such and continue to make payments.”

Torsella expressed hope that he’ll be allowing “PennDOT and the General Assembly time to get to work on resolving those issues early in 2021, and keep Pennsylvanians working in the meantime.”

In other news related to PennDOT, the agency announced that, because of statewide efforts to mitigate potential exposure to the novel coronavirus, it is extending expiration dates through Dec. 31 on commercial driver licenses and commercial learner’s permits.

The new timetable applies to expiration dates of March 16 through Dec. 30 of this year.

Expiration extension deadlines on noncommercial driver license, photo identification cards, learner’s permits and camera cards ended on Aug. 31.

Customers can continue to complete various transactions and access several options online at www.dmv.pa.gov.

Driver and vehicle online services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and include driver’s license, photo identification and vehicle registration renewals; driver-history services; changes of address; driver license and vehicle registration restoration letters; ability to pay driver license or vehicle insurance restoration fee; driver license and photo identification duplicates; and the scheduling of a driver’s exam.

There are no additional fees for using online services.