War on Waste Yourself
By Michael Cecire • Sep 30th, 2009 • Category: State GovernmentAs the Gubernatorial race heats up, and the mudslinging rises to a fever pitch, one cannot help but notice that much of what both Bob McDonnell (R) and Creigh Deeds (D) are proposing comes across as being, well, fairly standard campaign fare. We’ve all been here before – that eerie moment during most campaign seasons when the besieged voter begins to wonder if there is much meaning to those things separating the two candidates.
Sadly enough, it’s not greatly different this time around in Virginia (maybe 2013, folks). To be sure, there’s certainly a bit of difference between our two contenders, but it’s definitely not proportional to the media warfare that inevitably engulfs even the most ‘positive’ campaign. Positive campaigning, I’ve noticed, is a political ritual as American as the customary embrace and subsequent discarding of New Year’s resolutions – but that’s a bit outside of my point.
I’d like to take issue with a particular item that jumped out at me while perusing our candidates’ websites – their absolute fixation with war-on-waste rhetoric. To be sure, Virginia government certainly has its problems with bureaucratic weight and misappropriation, but the way our political culture lends so much time, energy and paper to the issue of a few shekels here and there strikes me as somewhat missing the point. I’m not against saving some taxpayer coin (far from it) but it’s not even about saving money. The rhetoric of ’government waste’ and ’save money’ has somehow managed to replace actual policy leadership. Tell me the last campaign you remember where government wastefulness was not an issue, and I’ll retire from rapping.
The most obvious retort to this challenge is, of course, that such a political meme only underscores the massiveness of the problem. To this I’ll gladly concede. But imagine if we spent some of our time thinking about not merely how well or poorly our bureaucracies dispense their money – a mind-numbing exercise - but how we can actually use that money, those inputs, to produce a key outcome. Yes, yes, I know that we want less waste so we have more money for roads – but does that translate operationally at VDOT? In the sense that, do we give VDOT x billion dollars and say, go build us the roads we need? No. We burden that allocation with caveats and interpretations and restrictions and regulations so that the result is fairly simple: VDOT ceases to be in the business of serving the Virginians and is instead subject to the maddening affairs of complying with writ and law to perhaps, at the end of that whole process, build. And yet we wonder why we always need more money.
The whole concept of eradicating government waste is blared about for its own sake which, though understandable, has not borne fruit since its invention millennia ago. I’m going to go out on a limb here and venture to say that government waste, like its nebulous cousin ‘poverty,’ will not be eradicated in this or any future generation. Instead, I would challenge that we redirect our focus towards ensuring the provision of services – outputs – and granting our professionals in Richmond and around the state the means and flexibility to do so.
Again, this doesn’t mean that waste in government does not exist or that it should (or can) be ignored, but that the level of outcry over what is generally a minor sum could be far better applied to actually reinventing the mechanisms within the machinery of government to make sure that things are actually getting accomplished. So, why not keep VDOT’s funding static? Don’t cut it nor raise it. Let’s not do any tax increase, Mr. Deeds. Let’s not increase our public debt through a series of bonding initiatives, Mr. McDonnell. Why don’t we try something different this time? Let’s remake the rules governing public spending. Create real workplace incentives for public employees to be more aggressive and proactive about their work. Give our workers the opportunity to work remotely, if it makes sense. Deploy the carrot and stick to management to have them engineer and execute many of those innovative ideas to get our roads built, maintained and trains moving. Let’s look at this in the long-run.
There’s a place for decrying government waste. There’s also a powerful argument to be made that the state needs more money – I can even buy that. But what is absolutely inexcusable is the same drivel that is being stuffed down Virginia’s collective throat every campaign season and labeled ‘reform.’ Humbug.
Why not rationalize our byzantine processes, re-couple inputs and outputs, and make government more competitive before we resolve to saddle ourselves with evermore public debt or the stupidity of higher taxes (or, heavens, both)? If Virginia wants a war on waste, I say it begins with ending the wastefully antiquated way we’ve lulled ourselves into performing the business of government. Anything short of that is just more of the repackaged nonsense most Americans have come to expect from our political class.
Michael Cecire is an economic development practitioner living in the Philadelphia area and working with a New Jersey public investment agency. A former Peace Corps Volunteer, Cecire earned his Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently pursuing graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He has published articles with the London Telegraph, MichaelTotten.com, and TCS Daily.
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Unless someone can demonstrate that Va has a serious problem with waste compared to other states or compared to any reasonable standard, I’m inclined to think that fundamental structural budget issues can’t be legitimately solved by a focus on waste & abuse. You need a performance measuring accountability like this http://vaperforms.virginia.gov/ as a continuing program and the Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts can and should sound the warnings when appropriate but he basic concept that we can’t meet our budget obligations because of waste, fraud & abuse is bogus and a disservice to the public.
I really enjoyed the points made on the allocation of funds through VDOT because I feel that people constantly mistake the money received as directly placed on construction of roads. There are so many restrictions, obligations, and loopholes to receive money that it seems a slim possibility to see money applied anywhere much less construction projects. I also appreciated the comment about providing more support and flexibility to public servants to implement services and employ new ideas rather than being constrained as they are now.
re: VDOT. they have about a 3billion dollar budget and virtually every penny is spent now on maintenance.
Most folks have no clue how much it costs to maintain their roads. They labor under the myth that once a road is built that it is paid for.
If we think we need more roads – they aint going to come from liquor stores and ferreting out waste & abuse.
You’re gonna need new money – plain and simple. Deeds was honest about that. McDonnell was not.
Larry G. is on the mark. VDOT can no longer pay for what it has and yet McDonnell is pushing the growth and development mantra that partly got the state into this current mess. That means more liabilities added to what we can’t pay for currently, placed upon a workforce that is being cut to the bone (already the lowest employee to roadway mile ratio of all the DOTs), and McD wants to further cut VDOT staff. Sounds like a good business model.
VDOT is the 3rd largest DOT in the nation by virtue of having to maintain and operate virtually all county roads, while also making maintenance payments to the urban localities. That means we, the taxpayers, are on the hook for maintaining cul-de-sacs and subdivision streets, as well as being held accountable for “fixing” the congestion mess that results from continued sprawl and leapfrog development. There is no free lunch, but the developers are getting some nice fat subsidies from the taxpayers.
I think we do a much better job with land-use decisions when the same folks who make the land-use decisions are also directly responsible for the transportation consequences.
That’s the situation in 46 other states, all of Va cities and 2 counties and it makes a big difference in how they view development proposals and what requirements they place on the developers.
JLARC has advocated that we allocate local roads to the localities, regional roads to the MPO and roads of statewide significance to VDOT.
and I agree.. with that.
let the localities figure out if they want to use tax dollars to maintain cul-de-sacs and public roads that function like private ones.
Let VDOT set the standards at all 3 levels but allow 3rd party contractors to do the work per those standards.
For regional entities – allow a VRE-like sales tax to fund regional roads but either have direct-elected MPOs or require that the road plan be approved by referenda. Do NOT let unelected folks decide how to spend the money.
Let VDOT use tolls and congestion pricing and other PPTA approaches to roads of statewide significance.
I was hoping to hear from either Deeds or McDonnell or both – something more innovative and practical than what either one has proffered so far.