The Budget and Tax Center has a new paper on transportation funding in the state. Despite some of the typical problem recommendations, such as “don’t cut anything else because the state’s budget is infinitely elastic because we can always raise taxes” and “almost nobody rides mass transit but we should fund it anyway,” report author Stephen Jackson also makes some interesting recommendations.
Chief among these are his demand that DOT should not receive an increase in funding until it develops “an objective project prioritization process” and “third-party verification that it has its house in order and [has addressed] the concerns of the McKinsey report.” We can only hope the BTC will apply the same standards to education, health, and human services budget increases, too.
