Major Highway Projects Reform - Legislative Audit Bureau Report

For years, citizens and various public interest groups have questioned the state’s spending on highway expansion projects.  In February 2003, Senator Carol Roessler (R-Oshkosh) and Representative Suzanne Jeskewitz (R-Menomonee Falls), co-chairs of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Audits, led their committee to request a Legislative Audit Bureau investigation of the Major Highway Projects program. 

As one of the first groups invited to give input to the Legislative Audit Bureau, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin focused on sharing with the Legislative Audit Bureau the findings of our March 2003 legislative briefing booklet, Exceeding the Limit: WisDOT and Transportation Financing in Wisconsin.   The request for an audit could not have been better timed since one of the key findings in the booklet was that, historically, there has been a lack of transparency in how WisDOT spends state funds. 

1000 Friends of Wisconsin concluded that the lack of access to information inhibits the public’s ability to understand how its tax dollars are being spent and that an audit of WisDOT was needed.  Additional findings in the briefing booklet that were relevant to the audit included indications 1) that spending on Major Highway Projects was out-of-control, particularly in relation to spending on repair and maintenance work, and 2) that the approval process for Major Highway Projects, generally a proxy for highway expansion, amounted to little more than a rubber-stamp. 

Audit Findings

When the Legislative Audit Bureau released its report in late November many of our biggest concerns were confirmed, and some new concerns were created, while other questions remained unanswered.  The key finding of the audit was that cost overruns on just seven Major Highway Projects, six of which were enumerated between 1989 and 1995, totaled $381 million dollars.  Cost overruns on one project alone reached $86 million, evidencing seriously out-of-control spending.  The audit also found that a potential savings of $382 million on remaining Major Highway Projects has not been realized because ‘value engineering,’ a cost-benefit analysis process, has not been sufficiently implemented.  Also, arguments that environmental regulations are driving up the costs on highway projects appear to be overblown.

Meanwhile, questions about how Major Highway Projects spending compares to spending on highway repair and highway maintenance, as well as to aids to local governments and funding for alternative modes, remain unsatisfactorily answered.  We believe these questions should be addressed in future audits.

1000 Friends of Wisconsin
16 N. Carroll Street, Suite 810   Madison WI 53703    608.259.1000