VDOT needs outside look

Government wastes like a fat man breathes, heavier and more frequently with each step. Few agencies are fatter than state departments of transportation, whose waste may be anything but voluntary. Feeding perpetually on taxpayer money, state DOTs are a traditional repository of raw gluttony, with parasitic legions swarming to nibble and sometimes chomp at bounties of billions of dollars. A query that percolates in the commonwealth: Is VDOT different?

Some minds inquire but don’t yet know. Bob McDonnell, doubtless dreaming of mounding political hay in his run for governor, roughly a year ago urged lawmakers to order an external audit of the Virginia Department of Transportation. Chapped that VDOT planned to close a string of Interstate 81 rest areas to cut costs, state Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, and Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, echoed the call in March. Responses flowed like hardened mud.

Its balances unchecked by independent snoopers, VDOT has proceeded with the whittling Obenshain, along with a pair of Republican locals, Sen. Chris Saxman, of Staunton, and Del. Steve Landes, of Weyers Cave, detested. The agency announced Thursday that it would shutter 19 rest areas, reaping $9 million in savings as part of $1.5 billion in cuts in a six-year improvement program.

Stops in Mount Sidney made the list. For most motorists, the move is a trifle. Not so for truckers. They rely on rest areas particularly on highways like I-81, a glorious ride for ordinary drives but a grind for professionals making hauls up steep grades on 18 wheels. Rest areas provide a chance to cool heels along with gears.

Piffle, said transportation officials. We do not say good riddance, but neither are we inclined to lament the move. The same applies to the shuttering of the department’s residency office in Verona, so long as it does not translate to a cutback in service when the snow falls. VDOT is in a pinch and that requires hard decisions that spread throughout the agency. We cannot expect our region to be shielded from fiscal reality.

Landes suggests there were other places to slash and snip. Bureaucracy, he says rightly, survived the latest round of cuts with scarcely a scratch. Less clear is whether VDOT’s administration is unduly thick. Its administrative costs, for example, are well below the national average. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has cited a statistic that is difficult to dismiss: “By the end of fiscal year 2007, VDOT ... completed 90 percent of projects on time and on budget.”

Further, Kaine told the legislature last year, the agency has faced eight audits and performance reviews since 2001.

So why then do we concur with Landes and others in their calls for an independent audit? First, because of the modifier: an independent audit reduces the likelihood of bias. It’s why internal affairs divisions exist to investigate police, rather than having cops check themselves and their pals in blue. Second, because even if Virginia compares favorably to other states, that doesn’t mean waste does not exist here; it may only exist to a lesser extent than someplace else.

Those who suggest that there are larger concerns are correct. Virginia needs a transportation fix. An independent audit will not provide it. Nor would keeping open a pair of rest areas in Mount Sidney and 17 others elsewhere. But both an audit and the rest stop closings are steps toward maximizing efficiency. Both can help trim the beast while lawmakers continue searching for ways to feed it.