In the midst of their “Just Fix It” Campaign, the Transportation Development Association of Wisconsin is touting a fresh report they commissioned from UW-Whitewater enumerating the economic impact of the “delayed” highway projects WISDOT recently announced. In Executive Director Craig Thompson’s blog, he states:
The research quantifies what many of us know intuitively — these projects will create jobs in the short-term and have a significant positive impact on the economy as a whole in the long-term.
But don’t think Thompson is suggesting that Wisconsin’s overall economy would benefit by increasing the gas tax and moving forward with the 5 major projects that have been “delayed”, because as the lead author of the report told me, the methodology uses a “partial equilibrium model.” In non-economist terms what that means is the study only looked at a subset of the impacts that the taxing and spending on highways would have on the economy. National studies generally show that net returns are declining, with the real possibility that the negative economic impact of taking the money out of the pockets of taxpayers is actually greater than the net benefits that highway spending produces.
What this suggests is that part of the solution to the gap between existing funding and the projects that WISDOT wants to build is to trim out the less economically productive projects. But in order to figure that out, Wisconsin needs the kind of analysis of return that groups representing transportation developers and chambers of commerce are unlikely to pay for: A state-level analysis of the full costs and benefits of WISDOT’s operations. And the only possible organization to take that on would be the State of Wisconsin. It just so happens that the Joint Legislative Audit Committee is kicking off their preparation for an audit of WISDOT on Thursday, October 15th at 9:00am. Now would be a good time to contact members of that committee and request a full economic analysis.
