On today’s episode of The Confluence:
Audit of the state Turnpike Commission finds it’s struggling to raise money
(0:00 - 7:20)
A report on the performance of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission by the state Auditor General’s office finds the commission is struggling to raise money and faces other challenges.
The Turnpike Commission recently proposed a 5% hike in tolls to take effect in January. As required by Act 44, since 2007, the Turnpike Commission has provided the state Department of Transportation with funding assistance for mass transit systems, bridges, and highways requiring annual toll increases.
“One of the recommendations was the funding that the Turnpike now has to be giving to PennDOT, which is now $50 million a year, should either be reduced or eliminated altogether,” says Auditor General Timothy DeFoor.
The office reviewed the commission’s financial statements from June 1, 2018 through June 13, 2022 and came up with three main findings: There are challenges to raise toll revenue, collect tolls, and the anti-discrimination language in contracts for amenities at service plazas is outdated.
DeFoor says the commission agreed with the auditor general’s first two findings regarding finances and raising money, but disagreed with the third issue regarding anti-discrimination language.
State lawmakers spent millions on redistricting experts
(7:28 - 13:28)
An investigation by Spotlight PA found state lawmakers spent at least $3 million in taxpayer money on outside law firms and experts in an effort to create favorable maps to their parties during the redistricting process.
“The Republicans spent a little bit more, I think, $1.6 million [compared] to the Democrats, [who] spent $1.4 million,” says Kate Huangpu, government reporter with Spotlight PA. “The Democrats also used six different firms, while the Republicans just used two.”
Huangpu says although some might argue an expert on redistricting should be a Pennsylvanian, the highest paid people for either party were both academics outside of the state.
Democrats paid political science professor Matt Barreto from the University of California, Los Angeles, about $65,000. Republicans in the General Assembly paid Michael Barber a Brigham Young University professor about $88,000 for his expertise.
A new play, inspired by a Ukrainian novel, debuts at the International Literary Festival next week
(13:33 - 22:30)
Next week, an original play called “I Am (Romance): Ukrainian Theater in Translation” will debut at City of Asylum’s International Literary Festival. The performance was originally going to be developed through an artistic residency at Slovo House in Kharkiv, Ukraine, but the ongoing war made that impossible.
The play explores the idea of “motherland” and is inspired by a short story called “I (am) Romance” by Mykola Khyvylovy, a story in which the executioner of a communist party’s secret police has to decide whether or not to sentence his own mother to death.
Audrey Rose Dégez, the play’s producer and director, intends for the performance to bring more awareness of Russia’s ongoing oppression of Ukraine to U.S. audiences. She established a “satellite” Slovo House at her parent's home in Pittsburgh.
“We talk a lot about this being an informational war and a cultural war, and this is about cultural oppression… Over 100 years ago, already artists and intellectuals were being assassinated, their work was being burned. And so we are fighting the war,” says Dégez. “While we are not on the front, we are not the soldiers, we are here in America sharing that culture that Russia is trying to oppress.”
The production of “I Am (Romance): Ukrainian Theater in Translation” will debut Tuesday, September 20 and will be performed also in Chicago, Florida, and New York. Free tickets are available at City of Asylum’s website.
The Confluence, where the news comes together, is 90.5 WESA’s daily news program. Tune in Monday to Thursday at 9 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. to hear newsmakers and innovators take an in-depth look at stories important to the Pittsburgh region. Find more episodes of The Confluence here or wherever you get your podcasts.
