Halt highway spending abuses
9:47 PM 2/14/04

The Legislature should make it a top priority to close the holes that have been allowing the state's major highway program to waste hundreds of millions of dollars. <

A bill to improve legislative oversight of highway project costs is a good start. But lawmakers shouldn't stop until they have summoned the courage to stand up to road builders and complete a thorough overhaul of what has been an outrageously uncontrolled spending process. <

Legislation prepared at the request of Sen. Robert Cowles, R-Allouez, follows several recommendations issued by the Legislative Audit Bureau, which last year reviewed state highway spending over the previous several years. That review provided ironclad proof that reform is needed. The auditors found cost overruns of $20 million or more each on seven projects and further discovered that the Transportation Department had rejected independent advice that would have saved $382 million on 21 projects. <

The review also found that in the midst of the cost overruns and waste the Legislature added to the spending spree by approving road-building projects that the state Transportation Department didn't even plan to do. <

Moreover, the review found that as the number of highway projects grows, the time between project approval and completion has grown to an average of 12 years. Consequently, during the long lag time, inflation drives up costs, compounding the problem. <

As if that weren't reason enough to adopt reforms, Transportation Department officials and federal prosecutors have subsequently discovered evidence of bid-rigging on as many as 30 contracts for highway projects. <

In unvarnished English, it's a mess that lawmakers need to clean up. <

Clearly, highway construction and repair is important to Wisconsin. Road builders employ thousands of people, and they keep our highways in good repair and updated to handle traffic volume. But that's no excuse for waste and fraud. <

The victims of uncontrolled highway spending are Wisconsin drivers who pay the vehicle registration charges and other fees that go into the fund that pays for major highway projects. They deserve better. <

The Legislature's Joint Audit Committee hearings on highway spending are likely to yield ideas for improvement. But some conclusions are already clear. <

The state needs to make better use of a process called value engineering to eliminate unnecessary costs. Value engineering, encouraged by the Federal Highway Administration, involves submitting projects to team review to find ways to accomplish results as cost-effectively as possible. <

Accounting procedures need to be improved to allow better tracking of spending on real estate, engineering, relocation and other environment-related costs. <

Detailed annual reports on spending for all major highway projects should be sent to the state Transportation Projects Commission and the Legislature for review. The reports should be supplemented by updates on any changes in the design and scope of projects so that projects cannot expand substantially without additional scrutiny. <

Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi has noted that most of the problems uncovered by the Legislative Audit Bureau occurred under previous administrations. But that should not dissuade the Legislature from putting new controls into law. Reform should be implemented before the public is fleeced further.