GDOT Now Paying For Getting Ahead of Itself
Decatur Metro | September 18, 2010The AJC reported a couple days back that it was revealed at a Wednesday agency board briefing that the “cash-strapped” Georgia Department of Transportation would need to put aside $75 million of its $1.8 billion annual budget to pay for “cost overruns on projects it rushed to bid during the flush years of the construction boom.”
At the time, GDOT was under pressure from Governor Perdue’s “Flash Forward” program, which hoped to cram 18 years of construction projects into 6. Ah, the tempting illusions – or shall I say “delusions”? – of growth.
But that’s not all…
The $75 million is one payment of several. As of 2008, said Angela Whitworth, DOT’s director of finance, the overruns added up to about $250 million, but DOT has been paid them down to about $158 million. The agency plans to set aside $50 million in the next fiscal year and $25 million the year after that.
DOT is also paying $185 million annually in debt service for the original cost of the projects, according to DOT officials. Last year the agency spent $1 billion on road projects.
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Wrong priorities, wrong ideas–and of course, whenever we talk about saving money, it’s “bad” public transportation, aka MARTA that gets stripped of funding and a bad rap in the media. But when it is about roads, roads, roads, money can’t leave the state’s coffers fast enough.
By the way–shouldn’t the headline be “Taxpayers now Paying for GDOT getting ahead of itself”?
I know I am going to get slammed for this but I thought that the point of a Republican governor/legislature was increased accountability. What’s the point of the “business model” and “accountability” and the rest of the corporate jargon if in the end the numbers don’t add up in the end? In my opinion, and I recognize there are plenty of others out there, if there’s going to be cost overruns and a lack of accountability that hurt the taxpayers in the long run, I’d rather that they be about programs and services, especially for the disadvantaged, rather than projects that benefited corporations. This is NOT a slam on corporations and the business model but on the assumption that applying those models to public administration without intelligent adaptation to the goals and content of public service would magically work. It makes no more sense to me than blindly applying the methods of public administration to running a corporation.
You miss the point that GDOT is an entity accountable to nobody – it was set up that way 40 years ago.
Actually, Steve, as the post points out, Perdue foisted “Flash Forward” on the DOT. It was his idea. Call me old fashioned for asking, but shouldn’t the person who created the problem be held accountable?
The Board agreed to it. They didn’t have to. They have done and not done many things in the past. GDOT issues the bonds, agrees to and lets the projects. The Gov did none of these.
Unfortuanately the only people politicians are accountable to is their contributors. Building roads is big business.
http://ethics.georgia.gov/Reports/Campaign/Campaign_ByContributions.aspx
This is a fun website and you can even search by zipcode! Obviously the recession is hurting some of the neighbors worse than others.
This is another good one too.
http://www.opensecrets.org/
Don’t worry Karass, the Stimuli from the Federal Government will make everything OK. Don’t go gettin “Tea Party” on us. Barak and Co’s gonna show us how Smart Government is done!