Spend More, Or Spend Smarter?
By Greg L | 19 June 2008 | Virginia Politics | 6 Comments
Once again, the General Assembly is going into special session to talk about raising our taxes in order to finance transportation improvements. Before any legislation is passed that increases funding for transportation however, a performance audit needs to be conducted of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to determine how efficient and effective it is operating. A similar audit was conducted in the State of Washington that concluded its transportation challenges were caused not by a lack of spending, but were due to misguided goals, a lack of priorities, no methodology for evaluating performance, and poor management. It makes sense that before we fork over more of our money to the state, we can at least establish some confidence that the money is spent wisely, and if it is not, improve VDOT before we think about lavishing more funding upon it.
In a statement released today, Delegate Sam Nixon, the Republican Caucus chair in the House of Delegates wrote the following:
As the General Assembly convenes its special session next week to discuss transportation, one of the most important pieces of legislation that will be proposed is a thorough, independent audit on the efficiency and effectiveness of the Virginia Department of Transportation. I, along with the House Republican leadership and many members of our Caucus strongly support having a private sector entity conduct this performance audit of VDOT in order to identify opportunities for cost savings, private sector involvement and unnecessary or unproductive programs that could be reduced or eliminated. While Governor Kaine continues to use questionable justification for his massive statewide tax plan, House Republicans want to make sure that government is functioning properly before even considering asking for more money from hard-working Virginians during this time of economic uncertainty. Our Caucus is firmly behind this initiative and hope that it receives a clear bipartisan endorsement next week.
Another major proponent of the idea of a VDOT audit is Delegate Scott Lingamfelter, who has been beating the drum on this for well over a year, as well as proposing that VDOT allocate spending based on population (where the congestion is) and determine which projects to prioritize based on the reduction in congestion and safety improvements that project would generate. If we’re going to expect congestion relief as a result of this exercise, VDOT ought to be allocating their resources towards, well, actually relieving congestion, instead of making sure every legislator in the state gets an opportunity to tell their constituents how they “brought home the bacon” by doing such things as getting a four-lane bypass built around Danville.
This looks a whole lot more popular an idea than Governor Kaine’s plan to simply throw more money at the problem through major tax increases. The Governor held a press conference today to talk about his plan, a plan which only House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong has signed on as sponsor, and only ten delegates even bothered to show up for the press conference. The Governor’s plan doesn’t even have the support of Democrats, while the idea of improving the efficiency of VDOT likely has more than enough votes to pass the House, and would likely be pretty popular in the Senate as well.
Unfortunately there is very little chance that this special session will accomplish anything at all, given that it is probably going to be a four hour exercise in pointlessness and grandstanding. At least Virginia Republicans are offering some creative ideas that might shove aside this notion that another round of massive tax hikes is the only way we can resolve Virginia’s transportation problems, which can gain traction between now and next January. Perhaps during next regular session, a reprioritization of spending and a thorough reform of VDOT will have a shot at passage, given that we’ve got months to discuss the idea before the General Assembly meets. By then, hopefully Democrats won’t be so wedded to the idea that they must raise taxes and will at least be willing to consider some alternatives.
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I’ve seen plenty of examples of VDOT not doing things quite correctly.
Their handling of construction zones, or their oversight of their contractors, is pretty poor. Things like confusing lane markings (where the reflectors aren’t removed from the roadway when the painted lane lines are relocated–I’ve seen this TWICE and it almost caused an accident TWICE), or closing the left turn lane onto Willard Rd from 28NB without any advance signage indicating that fact, again almost causing an accident, and of course the traffic signals with malfunctioning loop detectors that VDOT can never seem to fix. (I read a paper where it was stated that malfunctioning loop detectors can be a major cause of traffic backups…and I’ve seen that result myself on several occasions).
Then there was the time I was driving to work and either VDOT or one of their contractors was plopping cones in the middle lane of 28. There were cones knocked all over the place, because they hadn’t actually closed any lanes, just started putting cones down and getting them about 2 feet into the left side of the middle lane.
All of these things are symptoms of some sort of underlying dysfunction that I’m not sure more money will fix. The root cause of this stuff is a management problem.
This is a great idea. Start making the government accountable before they take any more money away from us.
You mean Duck Colgan was not at the press conference?
I agree with sahdman and Scott Lingamfelter. Scott is a people person and understands how conservatives are supposed to think and act. Duck Colgan is like a Kennedy or a Byrd. People just keep voting them back in, not because they are the best candidate but because…, let me think……..
I agree ,no more roads no more transit, let’s all sit in gridlock for the next 20 years.
Let’s http//www.BeatTheGridlock.com once and for all!
Greg,
I am happy to say that my audit bill, Chief co-patroned by Delegate Glen Oder of Newport News, passed out of both the Transportation and Appropriations Committees and will be on the floor of the House tomorrow, 25 June.
There are no self-butchering hogs and we need this outside look by a private-sector audit firm, not another “inside job” that sustains the bureaucracy. I also chose to use the Auditor of Public Accounts (APA) to administer the selection of the private auditor firm because I didn’t want the transportation bureaucracy to pick the auditor.
I will keep you updated as soon as we can get this off the floor. Then we must press on the Senate to take it up, pass it, get busy, and look after the interests of tax payers. Now that would be a change.
Regards,
Scott Lingamfelter