As one can see from this week’s taxpayer Q and A and from media coverage this week, Allegheny County will take up the matter of adding a $5 fee on top of the price of the state’s vehicle registration to fund transportation projects within the County. The state’s Act 89 legislation gave all counties in the state the option to enact the fee. It is a “do it or don’t do it option” as the county auto fee is either $0 or $5–there is no option to place a $2.50 fee, for instance.
PENNDOT is dutifully tracking the counties that have enacted the fee, but to date there has not been a lot of counties that have adopted it. Blair County and Cumberland County have released estimates of what they expect the fee to generate, as has Allegheny County, though the latter obviously has not enacted it yet.