In a setback to Pennsylvania’s efforts to place tolls on Interstate 80, federal highway officials have declined to approve the state’s application to make I-80 a toll road.

The Federal Highway Administration returned the state’s application Wednesday, without either approving or denying it, with a series of pointed questions about why the state felt it necessary to toll the 311-mile section of I-80 from Ohio to New Jersey.

The state wants to place tolls on I-80 to help raise money to fund statewide highway and bridge repairs and as part of a broader plan to fund mass transit agencies. If it receives federal approval, the state hopes to have tolls in place by 2010.

If the federal government does not permit tolls on I-80, SEPTA and other mass-transit agencies will get $150 million a year less than promised, and highways and bridges will get $300 million a year less – a cut of 50 percent by 2010.

That would undermine the whole funding plan for transportation adopted by the legislature in July and send the state scrambling for other ways to raise money. Options could include higher gas taxes, higher fees for motor-vehicle registrations, higher transit fares, and – Gov. Rendell’s favorite – leasing the turnpike to a private operator.
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