Audit Critical Of Caltrans Decisions
Sacramento, CA — A new state audit is critical of the way Caltrans is allocating money for maintenance projects.
The report, released by California Auditor Elaine Howell, notes that the agency spent $250,000 in 2009 to develop a new model that would give funding priority to areas of the state that are of most critical need, rather than the traditional model of giving set percentages of money to the 12 Caltrans districts. The audit notably focused on field maintenance, which includes minor repairs and things like clearing of vegetation. The newly developed model would have taken into account traffic volume, climate and terrain. The reason for creating the new program was that some areas where seen to have excess money, while others had much overdue maintenance needs. However, the new program was created, but not implemented.
The report comes out as Democrats and Republicans have been debating how to fund California’s backlog of overdue road maintenance.
The Assembly Republican Caucus is using the report to argue its claim that additional tax revenue is not the answer to fix roads, and a change to the overall system is needed. The caucus has released a statement reading, “Levying taxes on Californians to simply dump that money into a broken system will do nothing to fix our roads. California doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a governing problem.”
You can find the audit by clicking here.
