Progressive Thinking

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout writes about one of the sticking points in state budget negotiations, the Transportation budget. She shares information about consequences of borrowing, consequences of delaying road rehab and ways to find savings. She calls for a comprehensive audit of the DOT to help inform lawmakers and the public on ways to wisely invest transportation dollars.

MADISON - “Senate leader on budget deal: ‘I don’t know where we are at’” was the headline of a recent Associated Press story on the budget deal. The story went on to report there’s “no agreement yet on how to pay for transportation projects…”

While the Senate leader gathered up votes, I gathered up a few studies to understand if all this borrowing was necessary.

Here’s what I found:

Transportation spending is about $6 billion - 8.5% of our total state budget. About 40% of that comes from the federal government.

Last April, the budget committee received good news that low fuel costs meant residents were driving more and gas tax money is up – by about $13 million over 3 years.

But that’s nowhere near the amount necessary to cover the problems the governor created for legislators when he decided to borrow $1.3 billion for transportation spending.

Debt costs are expected to chew up almost a quarter of all transportation funds by the end of the coming budget. Large increases in borrowing is causing concern. To lower debt, legislators must reduce spending or increase revenue. The governor’s own Secretary of Transportation suggested many ways to increase revenue in his nearly 600-page budget.

But if my Republican colleagues don’t want to take action that might look like a fee increase, what else can be done?

Many in the Capitol are talking about cutting spending. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) asked DOT officials what this might mean. One possible consequence of cutting road rehab money is an increase in road roughness – as measured by a federal standard.

In 2001, 9% of Wisconsin roads scored in poor condition for roughness and the DOT now estimates 17% of roads scored poor. With a $500 million cut to the transportation budget residents will see an increase to 32% of roads in poor pavement roughness over the next ten years. Maybe this is not what citizens want.

Another option is to be more efficient with our transportation dollars. I suggest we audit the DOT to find ways to improve efficiencies. The last truly comprehensive audit of DOT was done by the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) was in 1997. In that review, auditors raised questions about the effectiveness of outsourcing engineering to private firms.

Quality measures showed that DOT staff engineers had higher quality project design than outsourced engineers. Studies I reviewed showed use of these outsourced-engineers dramatically increased over the past two decades.

For example, spending on private construction engineers was only 8% of all construction-engineering costs in fiscal year 1987-88. Ten years later this spending jumped to a third of all dollars spent on construction engineers. By fiscal year 2009-10, three quarters of all dollars spent on construction engineers was spent on private firms.

Data I analyzed from a 2009 limited-scope review by LAB showed a 68% cost increase per project over 5 years for projects that involved private engineering consultants.

Further, a 2009 report to the State Engineering Association found use of outside consultants didn’t save the state money; in some cases private engineering firms cost up to 19% more than in-house state engineers. This study also recommended a comprehensive review of the role of consultants in state projects.

Increased use of internal staff instead of outside consultants is just one example of how to save money. The DOT Secretary and the Governor did request and receive 180 new engineering positions in the last budget. Unfortunately, I’ve heard from DOT staff that pay and benefits at private engineering firms are significantly better than DOT making it hard for the state to keep good staff.

Another concern is a program that allows contractors ‘flexibility’ in use of construction materials if they ‘warrantee’ the construction. A 2011 LAB report showed that DOT staff did not make inspections of over half of warrantee projects during the warrantee period; over a third of projects inspected didn’t meet DOT performance standards and in 6 projects that didn’t meet DOT performance standards, regional offices could not document that contractors performed required repair work.

These are just a few findings over the past few decades.

Any transportation ‘fix’ will be short-term until Wisconsin can get spending under control. To do that, legislators and the public need detailed management information – the kind that can only be obtained through an audit by the nonpartisan LAB.

MADISON - If you want to keep Social Security and Medicare safe and sound, work for college affordability.

If you want urban mass transit, work to bring cell phone signals and Internet connections to every rural doorstep.

If you want public workers to be respected and valued, work to make the minimum wage a living wage and create new protections for nonunion workers in the private sector.

Focusing only on what you want won’t get you what you want. Your wish will be society’s command only if those you need standing with you and voting with you get what they want too.

The political landscape is littered with single-issue groups with enormous clout. Each is on an island, not concerning itself in the least with what’s happening on the next island over. Even the very strongest of them – like the once-mighty teachers unions – can find themselves suddenly isolated and vulnerable. We need each other. City dwellers need rural folks. Seniors need teens and twenty-somethings. White collar professionals need blue collar laborers. Otherwise the billionaires will keep on winning.

Organizations or institutions devoted to the common good are hard to find. Political parties should be so oriented, but in this era of legal bribery they are preoccupied with accommodating each individual interest group. They seem to think if you add up enough special interests the sum total will equal the public interest. It never works out that way.

We live in an age when the dominant political philosophy is me-firstism. The idea that greed is good and selfishness begets productivity has been pounded into us daily. We’re taught the illusion that each of us is self-made and that we can make it through life without ever needing another’s help, thereby freeing us from any sense of responsibility for the well being of others. In reality, this philosophy only makes us a nation of cats, totally dependent on others but fully convinced of our own independence.

The answer to me-firstism is to think we first. If you want to save Social Security, work for college affordability. We’re all in this together.

MADISON - While the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) did not meet this week to finish working on Governor Walker's 2015-17 state budget, both the Assembly and Senate were in session on Tuesday.  Below you will find a summary of our legislative action.

It is expected that JFC will reconvene next week to take up the outstanding state budget issues including taxes/revenue, transportation and the proposed Milwaukee Bucks arena.  Once the JFC finishes their work on the state budget it will go to the Legislature, where each house will have to pass the same version of the bill before June 30 (the end of the fiscal year).  The unfortunate reality is that this budget hurts the people of our state and doesn't reflect the priorities of the people, which include investing in our public education systems and our children.

GOP Eliminate 48 Hour Waiting Period for Handguns

In 1976, the Wisconsin Legislature passed legislation that would require a "cooling off" period between the purchase and delivery of a handgun.  Governor Patrick Lucey proudly signed the bill into law, stating the bill was designed "to help prevent crimes committed in a moment of passion or fit of rage that so often result in senseless tragedies among family or friends."  Not only does current law protect victims of domestic abuse, but it protects individuals who are contemplating committing suicide.

While I strongly spoke out against repealing the 48 hour waiting period, I also spoke out in favor of closing the "gun shop loophole" and requiring background checks on all purchases of guns, including at gun shows or private sales.  A 2012 survey by a Republican pollster showed that 82 percent of gun owners - including 74 percent of NRA members - supported background checks for all gun sales.  Some of the lowest female homicide rates in the country are found in states where background checks are required for all purchases.  If we want to reduce the epidemic of gun violence, we need background checks for all gun purchases.  I will keep advocating for commonsense gun safety measures.

Clean Air Regulations

While most of us have gas furnaces, there are still families across Wisconsin that use wood heaters.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), scientific studies have linked particle pollution exposure associated with these heaters to serious health problems including irregular heartbeats, nonfatal heart attacks, aggravated asthma and decreased lung function.

On Tuesday, the Assembly passed Assembly Bill 25 which forbids Wisconsin's DNR from promulgating a rule or enforcing new federal standards for wood burning appliances.  I voted against this proposal because having clean air and water should be one of our most important objectives.  We should allow the DNR and the EPA, the experts on these issues, to do their jobs.  Republicans seem to continue to disregard science in promulgating these harmful policies.

Last-Minute Vote Ends SAGE Program As We Know It

For years, schools across Wisconsin have participated in the Student Achievement Guarantee Program (known as SAGE) that provides additional aid to schools with the understanding that they maintain an 18-1 or 30-2 student-to-teacher ratio.  We all can agree that smaller classrooms with manageable class sizes provide our educators and our children with the best chance for success.

As Republicans continue to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars from our public schools to support private schools or provide corporate welfare to campaign donors, class sizes have begun to balloon and districts will look for any additional funding possible to keep their doors open.  Tuesday's bill essentially ends SAGE as we know it by eliminating the requirement that districts maintain SAGE classroom ratios to collect aid.  Don't let the GOP rhetoric fool you, this is a bill that is not in the best interests of our school children.

20-Week Abortion Ban Passes State Senate

As many of you can recall, last week I updated you on the status of the 20-week abortion ban that was passed out of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services on a party-line vote.  On Tuesday, the State Senate passed this dangerous bill on a party-line vote.  The debate raged on for several hours and despite the medical community's vocal opposition to this ban, which threatens women's health and lives, Republicans passed the legislation without blinking an eye.  Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has not indicated whether the Assembly will take this legislation up for a vote, but if we do, I promise you I will be ready!

As always, if you would like more information on any of these issues or have questions on any other legislative issue, please do not hesitate to contact my office directly at 608-266-5342 or via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The Craig/Jarchow bill transfers all legislative oversight of the executive branch and the fraud, waste and abuse hotline to two partisan leaders. Why would legislators want do away with the LAB? There are so many examples of how the exemplary and award-winning work of the Legislative Audit Bureau saved taxpayer dollars.

MADISON - Republican Representatives David Craig (R-Big Bend) and Adam Jarchow (R-Balsam Lake) have authored a bill to entirely eliminate the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) and the legislature’s Joint Committee on Audit as well.

Under the proposal, the independent audit bureau would be replaced by inspectors general who would provide auditing services to all state agencies with more than 100 employees. The inspectors general work under each department head, but are directed to audit their agencies and/or programs by the Speaker of the Assembly and the Senate Majority Leader. Both are Republicans.

The LAB has had a long history of independent audits of the Executive Branch. Governors of both parties have wished it would go away, fearing reviews they could not control.

The timing of this bill is especially curious coming on the heels of the extremely critical audit of the Walker Administration's WEDC, which has been rife with mismanagement and perceived cronyism.

Senator Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma), a frequent spokeswoman for progressive values on these pages and ranking minority member of the Joint Committee on Audit, harshly criticized the bill this morning.

“The breadth of the Representatives’ ignorance of the LAB activities and processes is staggering,” Vinehout said. “Their bill shows a complete unfamiliarity with the skills of auditors, the efficiencies in government that LAB staff helped create and the fraud, waste and abuse that auditors discovered and further prevented through their oversight.”

“The Craig/Jarchow bill transfers all legislative oversight of the executive branch and the fraud, waste and abuse hotline to two partisan leaders,” Vinehout said. “Their bill embeds auditors in the agencies making them ripe for corruption by executive staff and partisan leaders.”

Recent audits of economic development programs and Medicaid transportation provided lawmakers with critical and budget timely information. Last year’s audit of the Supervised Release program showed that the Department of Health Services was spending more for inmate transportation than the Department of Corrections.

“Legislative actions should be based on accurate information,” concludes Vinehout. “There are so many examples of how the exemplary and award-winning work of the Legislative Audit Bureau saved taxpayer dollars. All I can ask is why would legislators want do away with the LAB?”

Timing is especially curious coming on the heels of the extremely critical audit of the Walker Administration's WEDC, which has been rife with mismanagement and perceived cronyism. "Having an employee audit their boss is essentially a joke," said one veteran agency manager.

MADISON - Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin on Monday were circulating a bill that would eliminate the state's independent Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB).

GOP sponsors of the bill said the state would be better served by auditors working within state agencies.

Under the proposal being circulated among GOP lawmakers, the independent audit bureau would be replaced by inspectors general who would provide auditing services to all state agencies with more than 100 employees, according to analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Since its creation in 1966, the LAB has had a long history of independent audits of the Executive Branch. Governors of both parties have wished it would go away, fearing reviews they could not control. But none before Gov. Scott Walker has seriously attempted to kill it.

The existing audit bureau is a free-standing watchdog office that operates independently of the agencies it reviews. The bureau audits the practices of state agencies in addition to their books under the oversight of a bipartisan Legislative committee.

Having internal "inspectors" who report to individual department heads would essentially mute any effective audit function within state agencies, according to one 33 year veteran agency manager. "Having an employee audit their boss is essentially a joke", said our source. "Anyone really trying to be independent would quickly find themselves looking for work. That's why the audit function must be beyond the reach of the executive."

Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) agrees. In a statement issued Monday, Barca said of Rep. Dave Craig’s proposal to eliminate the Legislative Audit Bureau:

“In a session filled with bad ideas, this is one of the worst in terms of adversely affecting the taxpayers' long-term interest.

“One of the greatest strengths of the Wisconsin Legislature is having nonpartisan service agencies like the Audit Bureau, Fiscal Bureau and Reference Bureau. Through these agencies, citizens can be assured they are getting the pure facts and that the information released is not being clouded by partisan judgment or political spin.

“Changing the nonpartisan, award-winning Legislative Audit Bureau into partisan appointees continues the Republican efforts to reduce oversight of state government. The move would allow for more partisan and special-interest influence and further erode Wisconsin’s tradition of clean, open and transparent government.

“The timing is especially curious coming on the heels of the extremely critical audit of the Walker Administration's WEDC, which has been rife with mismanagement and perceived cronyism. Taxpayers deserve more oversight and accountability, not less.”

***

During his time in the legislature, Rep. Barca has twice co-chaired the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.