2008 COMMENTARY

February 20, 2008

Amber Gunn's Testimony on Highway Maintenance and Construction

By Amber Gunn

Good afternoon Chairman Rockefeller and members of the committee. I am Amber Gunn of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this performance audit.

We’d like to congratulate the auditor on this fourth audit of the Department of Transportation released on January 10. Unfortunately, this hearing is ten days past the deadline established by law and one day past a key deadline for bills to pass their house of origin.

The 30-day requirement was created for a reason. The short timeframe reminds lawmakers to pay attention and consider policy changes while the audit findings are fresh.

In addition, RCW 43.09.470 Section 9 states: “For performance audits of state government and its agencies, programs, and accounts, the legislature must consider the state auditor reports in connection with the legislative appropriations process.”

A key legislative recommendation in this audit was that the Legislature modify current contracting requirements to allow performance-based contracting for DOT projects.

How can legislators consider this and other audit findings when no hearings have been held to discuss them?

I would like to remind you that this audit and the other three transportation audits that JLARC has held hearings on were requested by the Legislature prior to raising the gas tax. Auditor Sonntag’s cover letter in this audit drives home the point that legislators must exercise their oversight authority if performance audits are going to have a meaningful impact. “The Legislature asked us to review transportation efficiency and effectiveness in Washington. Now it is the Legislature’s and the Department’s responsibility to act on the recommendations contained in this performance audit and our other performance audits of the Department.”

We would strongly urge you to follow these words in earnest. Taxpayers don’t need anymore shelf art. We need leaders. This is what you were elected to do, and we know you can.

The four transportation audits have identified more than $3 billion in cost savings over the next five years, many of which can be done within existing resources.

Though JLARC is not the committee that has jurisdiction over transportation policy, I would ask that you urge your fellow legislators in the House and Senate transportation committees to hold hearings on the transportation performance audits. Someone has got to take responsibility for these findings. The law demands it, and citizens expect nothing less.

Page 13 of the audit notes that DOT employs more than 7500 full and part-time employees “with over 60 percent focused on transportation.” The other 40 percent are administrative and overhead employees. This kind of inefficiency should raise red flags for everyone on this committee. The admin performance audit pointed out that DOT is duplicating all kinds of administrative functions, such as payroll processing. The result is we are paying for too many employees or extra hours that could be used for more productive tasks.

Legislators need to connect the dots on these transportation audits and aggressively pursue their recommendations.

The audit points out that DOT is facing a shortage of 450 engineers and project managers. The department does not have an action plan to address this problem and apparently the legislature has shown no interest in this critical shortage either.

We would suggest that the Legislature and DOT consider public-private partnerships as an alternative to hiring new full-time employees. There is a global market saturated in capital eager to invest in transportation projects, such as the 520 bridge or Alaskan Way Viaduct. Public-private partnerships have been successfully mobilized in England, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, India, Denmark, and Sweden, to name a few.

The use of public-private partnerships could help mitigate the personnel shortage facing DOT. The department must plan for the shortage either way.

Public-private partnerships could also be used to build and maintain highway rest areas, as Idaho is doing. Idaho’s DOT recently finished a new rest area that cost the state just $300,000 with a public-private partnership instead of $14 million. That frees up more money for roads and other priorities.

With the newly downgraded revenue forecast and a $2.4 billion projected deficit next biennium, the cost savings these performance audits identify are more vital than ever.

Please don’t allow these findings to fall by the wayside. Thank you.

Nothing in this publication should be construed as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any legislation or ballot measure.

Amber Gunn is Director of EFF’s Economic Policy Center. She serves as a voting member on the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force and is often consulted by media outlets and legislative staff for issue briefs and policy analysis. Prior to joining EFF full time, she was a Charles G. Koch Fellow in partnership with the State Policy Network. Amber holds a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from the University of Washington.

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