Pennsylvania’s bad roads are costing you money.

QuoteWizard, an online insurance marketplace, listed Pennsylvania as having the fifth worst road infrastructure in the United States.

QuoteWizard used percentages of poor-condition roads, annual cost per motorist due to roads in need of repair and percentage of structurally deficient bridges to rank the 50 states.

According to the list, 30 percent of Pennsylvania’s roads are in need of repair, and the annual cost per motorist as a result of the poor roads is $610.

The QuoteWizard report said 18 percent of Pennsylvania’s bridges are deficient.

Pennsylvanians pay the second highest gas tax in the country, 22 cents higher than the national average.

Every gallon of gas sold in Pennsylvania includes 77 cents of tax. Nearly 59 cents of that is state tax. The money from the gas tax goes to, among other things, repairs to roads and bridges.

But the state has been diverting billions of gas tax revenue from road and bridge work to cover the cost of state police patrols.

Also, transfers from the Motor License Fund to the state police have totaled more than $4.25 billion since the 2012-2013 fiscal year, money that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation could have used to address a growing list of needed repairs across the state.

As a way to decrease the amount coming out of the gas tax fund, Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed a per-capita fee, based on population size on communities without local police departments, to generate funding for state police. Meanwhile, the Turnpike Commission is supposed to be providing PennDOT with $450 million per year for public transit. The payment decreases to $50 million per year in 2023.

But the commission has been borrowing to pay that tab. The turnpike is now $11.8 billion in debt and has raised tolls 11 times since 2007.

So, what can be done to improve Pennsylvania’s roadways?

The state could shift from using gas tax revenue for road work and institute a mileage-based fee, but that would require an act of the Legislature.

The federal government could increase its investment in transportation infrastructure, but that appears unlikely.

The gas tax was passed in 2013. The revenue is used for road and bridge projects, some administrative overhead, infrastructure maintenance and the state police.

The state police funding is a sticking point. Some lawmakers suggest there should be different sources for state police funding. Gas tax revenue makes up a large portion of the state police budget, and PennDOT would like to free up that funding for road improvements.

The answer appears simple.

Find a better way to fund the state police and earmark more gas tax revenue for road and bridge repairs as it was intended.

— JGG