Strickland Hits Wrong Caltrans Problem

Steven Greenhut: I just received a press release from Assemblyman Tony Strickland, R-Simi Valley, regarding new legislation that he proposed. The bill, SB443, “would authorize the Old Town Orcutt Revitalization Association (OTORA) to plan, construct, and maintain a veterans’ memorial in a park-and-ride lot located in Orcutt, California. No state money will be used to build or maintain the memorial.” Apparently, Caltrans wouldn’t OK the plan because it included an American flag in the memorial, which is pretty crazy and outrageous. But while this bill is fine, the real problem with Caltrans is that it is a massive, bureaucratic and incompetent agency.

Check out this state auditor’s report, which finds:

“Despite a stated goal to reduce overruns in its project budgets, Caltrans has done little analysis to determine the frequency or magnitude of support cost budget overruns. Further, although opportunities exist to inform stakeholders of the extent of these overruns, Caltrans has not done so, limiting valuable information on the efficiency and effectiveness of the support program. Based on our review of the data provided by Caltrans, 62 percent of the projects that completed construction in fiscal years 2007-08 through 2009-10 had support costs that exceeded their respective budgets. These overruns totaled more than $305 million of the $1.4 billion in support cost expenditures for the projects that completed construction during these fiscal years. Caltrans’ California Transportation Improvement and Programming System (CTIPS)—which Caltrans uses, in part, to capture project budgets—is currently more reliable than Caltrans indicated had been the case in prior fiscal years.”

Previous state reports find that Caltrans is wasteful and that its employees often have virtually nothing to do — a fact obvious to anyone  who has strolled through the agency’s morgue-like hallways. Instead of worrying about symbolic issues such as flags at veterans’ memorials, Republicans should work on privatizing as much of the agency’s work as possible and instituting competitive procedures. They should cut its budget and at the same time improve the quality and quantity of road work in California. But symbolism is more fun.

MAY 11