I find the editorial “Figure out the source for state police fund money first” (April 13, TribLIVE) ignorant of the highway laws.

Title 36, § 425 prohibits the posting of any signage on state road rights of way without express written consent from PennDOT. Written permission is never obtained and the law is rarely enforced with a $4 to $10 fine, which is not much of a deterrent.

DSC01557 Title 75, § 3709 addresses littering. Illegal signage litters our landscape and comes with a greater penalty, a $300 fine for littering as seen by the green and white littering signs throughout the commonwealth.

One-half of the fines are distributed to the agency or local government unit which brought the action to enforce this section. One-half is allocated to the department for statewide public education and awareness programs to promote litter control. There is the unharvested revenue needed for the state police without creating or raising a tax.

I have repeatedly collected and deposited approximately 700 illegal signs each time on PennDOT’s front door for their lackadaisical enforcement. Each time this has the potential to gross $210,000 in revenue while cleaning up the community.

Fly-by-night businesses and politicians continue to litter our landscape, which motivates me to take down the signs and deliver them to PennDOT. For that, I was persecuted for doing a good deed. Had the local magistrate Joseph DeMarchis listened to the law cited, my case would not gone to a jury trail, and subsequent acquittal in Common Pleas Court.

Gary J. English

Murrysville

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