Is Connecticut transit system worst in US?
There’s a silver lining to not being in power: You don’t have to put your money where your mouth is.
Bob Stefanowski knows this all too well. Mr. Stefanowski spent the bulk of 2018 attempting to convince voters that he could partly finance the elimination of the income tax by slashing $1 billion in ambiguous “waste, fraud and abuse” from the state budget. Pressed for specifics, he offered little of substance.
He didn’t have to. Campaign speeches aren’t subject to the legal, mathematical and political constraints of budgets and capital improvement plans. Alas, voters denied Mr. Stefanowski the opportunity to wield the levers of power, but he retained the ability to pontificate free from the harsh realities of governing.
This freedom was on full display in Mr. Stefanowski’s latest opinion piece in The Courant [Nov. 17, Insight. “Gov. Lamont’s latest tolling plan is full of fallacies”]. “The solution to fixing our roads and bridges is simple,” he contends. “Connecticut’s administrative cost per mile of highway is over seven times the national average. Why not eliminate this terrible waste before pumping even more money into the most inefficient system in the country?”
Stefanowski cites data from a Reason Foundation study showing that if Connecticut’s administrative costs per lane mile were in line with the national average, the state would save $300 million per year. The problem is, $300 million is more than the entire payroll of the Department of Transportation. Something doesn’t compute.
If firing all the administrators would still leave you with administrative waste, you might want to check your numbers. In fact, the DOT did just that in 2018 when it reviewed the Reason Foundation’s methodology. In a memo to legislators, DOT officials point to a number of flaws in the analysis, including the fact that Connecticut includes fringe benefits and facilities costs in its DOT budget, which many states do not. Even the study’s authors acknowledge that the report “should not be viewed as a costeffectiveness comparison of the state highway departments.” DOT officials expect that following the Department’s submission of more comparable figures to the Reason Foundation, Connecticut’s administrative costs will fall by more than 80%.
But let’s not take the state’s word for it. If Connecticut is an inefficient steward of our transportation infrastructure, we deserve to know. On Oct. 31, the U.S. Census Bureau released its Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, which provides a detailed account of how states raise and spend taxpayer dollars, including a specific breakout for transportation spending. The data show that Connecticut spent roughly $4.2 billion on transportation in 2017, the most recent reporting year. This equated to $1,182 per person, or 23rd place across all states. As a percentage of gross state product, Connecticut appears even more austere, ranking 44th. Varying geographies, infrastructure characteristics and other factors will always prevent a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, but it’s clear that Connecticut is not the outlier that Mr. Stefanowski would have us believe.
When you’re not accountable for backing your rhetoric with legislation, it’s easier to take liberties with the truth. Vague accusations of fraud and debunked charges of administrative waste can be lobbed with relative impunity, perhaps even to great political effect. Over the long run, however, the subversion of truth poisons the political discourse and erodes public trust.
Some day, the people of Connecticut may see fit to elevate Mr. Stefanowski or a comparable candidate to the state’s highest office. Should that day arrive, it would behoove such a candidate not to have written rhetorical checks that simply can’t be cashed.