Lawmakers want more penalties for Pennsylvania Turnpike scofflaws

Ward sponsors bill to create toll evasion penalty structure

Lawmakers in Pennsylvania have repeatedly made adjustments aimed at reducing the number of travelers who skip out on paying their Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls, but a new audit finds that more needs to be done.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike lost $229 million in unpaid tolls in the 12-month period ending May 2025, the state auditor general found. The chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee has called for stiffer penalties for toll scofflaws.

Drivers who failed to respond when billed for traveling on the turnpike accounted for the largest share of that lost revenue -- about $171 million of it. The remainder was linked to problems identifying the driver due to problems reading the license plate of the vehicle.

For almost 20 years, drivers have risked seeing their vehicle registration suspended due to unpaid tolls. But until 2023, the threshold was $500 in unpaid tolls. Act 112 of 2022, which took effect Jan. 3, 2023, lowered the threshold for registration suspension to $250 or four unpaid tolls.

The same law also increased the statute of limitations to pursue toll scofflaws from three to five years.

Those efforts clearly haven't gone far enough, Auditor General Tim DeFoor said in releasing the report. He suggested turnpike officials allow people to use alternative forms of payment like Venmo and begin reporting scofflaws so unpaid tolls impact their credit scores.

DeFoor's review also suggested that Pennsylvania lawmakers adopt a strategy employed in Ohio and bar vehicle owners from being able to transfer ownership of their vehicles if they owe unpaid turnpike tolls.

In a response to the audit, turnpike officials said they've been working with legislators to find additional ways to deter people from refusing to pay their tolls and to force them to pay up if they are unwilling to do so. They pointed to Senate Bill 572, which was introduced in April 2025 by Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, but has not moved out of the Transportation Committee.

That legislation would allow turnpike officials to collect unpaid tolls from any lottery winnings or income tax refunds that scofflaw travelers have.

Senate Republicans, who hold the majority in the chamber, have indicated they will roll out their own proposal for cracking down on toll scofflaws, though the legislation has not been introduced yet.

In a cosponsorship memo, Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair, and Sen. Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, said their legislation would create a "three-tier penalty structure to end serious toll evasion."

The proposal would target those who continue to drive after having their registration suspended over unpaid tolls. The legislation would allow prosecutors to charge drivers with criminal trespassing if they get on the turnpike while their registration is suspended for failing to pay previous tolls.

In addition, the legislation would also create new criminal penalties for theft if the driver continues to use the turnpike without paying the tolls and establish "serious fare evasion" as a third-degree felony. Serious fare evasion, under this proposal, would involve traveling on the turnpike with unpaid tolls exceeding $10,000.

A spokesman for Ward, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said that she plans to meet with turnpike officials in the coming weeks to discuss the legislation.

In the meantime, turnpike officials announced in July that a coordinated crackdown with the state police, targeting aggressive drivers and those driving on a suspended registration resulting from unpaid tolls, led to 200 traffic stops, including 23 in one day.

One driver caught in the dragnet owed over $100,000 in unpaid tolls, according to the Turnpike commission.

The Ohio Turnpike & Infrastructure Commission in April published a list of 315 "rogue trucking companies" who collectively owed more than $5 million in unpaid tolls.

This week, officials with the Ohio Turnpike said that they had collected more than $443,000 from the trucking companies named on the list.

That included 11 companies who paid off their toll bills, another 41 who made partial payments and 31 companies that had agreed to set up payment plans.