The Legislature says it plans to do a thorough study of the Nebraska Department of Roads — its operations, its planning, its budgeting and its level of efficiency.
That's encouraging news. Such an examination by the Legislature's Performance Audit Committee can help Nebraska make responsible, informed decisions about how to fund and operate one of the most important institutions in the life of the state.
This is an agency with more than 2,100 employees and a road maintenance budget topping $200 million annually. A department whose actions have huge effects from one end of the state to the other. A department that, while insulated to a great degree from politics, nonetheless remains buffeted by pressures to approve this local road project or that one.
The department maintains nearly 10,000 miles of roads — though the $218 million it currently spends is nearly $50 million less than what the department needs to keep roads up to the desired standard. The share of Nebraska roads rated "very good" or "good" in 2005 was 85 percent. By 2010, that number had fallen to 75 percent.
Highway maintenance and construction decisions command the public's strong attention and spur powerful demands by local communities. Yet as The World-Herald reported last November, "Maintaining existing highways takes all of the state's current roads funding, leaving nothing to build new highways or expand existing ones."
Complaints from around the state continue to be loud because the state remains far behind in completing an expressway begun in 1988 to link the state's largest communities.
But reasonable concern also is voiced over the state's recent decision to break with tradition and for the first time siphon off a portion of the state's general fund revenues for road-building needs. Under current law, that diversion (involving a quarter-cent of the state's 5½ cent sales tax) will begin shifting $60 million annually, starting next year.
The study planned by the Legislature is called a performance audit. That's different from a financial audit, which examines an agency's budgeting and spending habits only.
A performance audit is broader and, when done right, provides valuable information about how efficiently a department is operating. Such examinations help evaluate government performance and make sure tax dollars go as far as possible. Performance audits can track whether resources are being used efficiently and whether the intended goals are being achieved.
The Nebraska Legislature's staff has done various performance audits over the years, but never to study the Department of Roads.
The experience in other states from such audits has yielded positive results. The Texas Performance Review has achieved wide-ranging efficiency improvements in that state's departments. Utah has identified more than $132 million in savings through such audits. In Washington State, the savings from 1990 to 2008 totaled $478 million.
What efficiencies and improvements might the Nebraska Department of Roads achieve from similar scrutiny? It's an excellent question for the Legislature to ask. And the answers will matter in every corner of the state.
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