Running a cost-efficient government means paying attention to the details. In his latest column, Mike Thompson, president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, describes one idea that has saved the state millions of dollars — and points to other reforms that can save millions more.
Thompson serves on the Regulatory Reform Commission, a bi-partisan group appointed by Attorney General Bob McDonnell, and he sits on the infrastructure task force chaired by Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling. He reports this success story:
The General Assembly transferred the responsibility for maintenance of the state’s automobile fleet of 4,669 vehicles from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to the Department of General Services (DGS). The DGS then opened auto maintenance to private sector providers to compete with VDOT’s expertise in this area. Since this competitive sourcing process began, we have found that in only some areas does VDOT provide the best service for the best price, and in other cases the private sector provides the best service and best price. But far more importantly, the state has saved fully 25% on the cost of auto maintenance by bringing competition to the table of vehicle maintenance.
Then Thompson turns his gimlet eye toward higher education. Building costs on Virginia campuses, Thompson had heard, were 20 percent higher than comparable buildings off campus — presumably the consequence of state regulations. The task force called in a Virginia Tech official for details, only to find out that the cost padding was far worse. At Virginia Tech, the per-square-foot cost of buildings on campus is 70 percent higher than buildings in the research park adjacent to the campus.
One reason is a Virginia Tech specification that every building must be constructed of “Hokie stone,” a dolomite limestone that is a defining feature of the campus. From Wikipedia: 80 percent of the stone is quarried from a 40-acre, University-owned quarry a few miles from campus, the rest from a second quarry on a local farm. Some 25-30 Virginia Tech employees “use black powder each day to dislodge the stone into block sizes and finish the blocks by hand using hammers and chisels.” Sounds expensive.
As expensive as it is, Hokie Stone accounts for only a portion of the inflated construction costs. It would be interesting to know what other factors are responsible for the bloat. The next time Virginians are asked to approve another $100 million+ bond offering to support higher-ed building construction, we might press for answers first.
In his column, Thompson cites other examples of absurd regulations and easy savings. As long as legislators adopt the attitude that it’s easier to stick the costs on taxpayers than the review state regulations with a fine-tooth comb, Virginians will pay higher taxes than they need to, and our periodic fiscal crises will be worse than they need be.
