Wisconsin Lawmakers Seek Better Post-Audit Highway Costs

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DALLAS – Republican state lawmakers in Wisconsin have asked highway planners for more realistic cost estimates for highway projects after a legislative audit found it cost twice as much as expected to build roads in the state.

Speaker Robin Vos and two other Republican leaders in the Wisconsin General Assembly said they need the updated project costs before work can begin on the state's next two-year budget due to concerns about the unexpected expenditures cited in the report released last week by the Legislative Audit Bureau.

"Lawmakers need to account for these new estimates in the overall budget plan as the nearly $1 billion projected deficit in the transportation fund could potentially be far worse than initially reported," said the letter sent to the director of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation signed by Vos, Assembly Majority Leader Rep. Jim Steineke, and Rep. John Nygren, co-chairman of the legislature's Joint Finance Committee.

"We are asking that the department report back to the Legislature with the new estimates or a confirmation of the original estimates, prior to legislative action on the budget," they said.

The report is due March 15. The finance committee is scheduled to take up Gov. Scott Walker's budget request in early April.

The audit said the state spent $1.5 billion on the highway projects completed between 2006 and 2015, approximately $772.2 million more than originally estimated.

Another 16 road projects under construction were originally expected to cost $2.7 billion, according to the estimates provided to the Legislature when the projects were approved, but their completion is now set at least $5.8 billion, the auditors said.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau said last year that it would take an additional $939 million of new revenues to keep transportation funding in fiscal 2018-2019 at the level as the current two-year budget.

"Taxpayers deserve to know how much a road is going to cost before it is built," Vos said. "Unfortunately, these miscalculations will probably confirm what many of us fear: Our transportation fund is deeper in the red than we thought."

The lawmakers said they want a full review of cost estimates for projects to be funded by the fiscal 2021 budget, a review of all projects not already funded, and a comprehensive report on all projects since 2010 that includes estimated and actual costs.

"We need to be confident in the estimates we are given," Nygren said. "I hope a review of these projects will confirm that the projections are correct, but if that is not the case, we need to be informed so future taxpayers don't end up in a bigger hole."

The Federal Highway Administration's office in Wisconsin said in mid-January that the state should focus on completing stalled road projects before beginning construction on new ones.

"There are so many projects under development, we do not believe all of them can advance on a reasonable schedule based on likely funding scenarios," the FHWA said in a letter to state officials.

Vos said the FHWA warning only confirmed what lawmakers already knew.

"We all recognize we have a problem funding our roads and now we need to come up with solutions," he said.

Vos had suggested an increase in the state's gasoline tax, which was opposed by Gov. Scott Walker, to resolve the revenue shortfall. However, Vos said last week that a gasoline tax hike was unlikely after new revenue projections showed a $450 million boost in state tax collections through mid-2019.

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Infrastructure Transportation industry Washington Wisconsin
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