Prediction: the next time the Maine Turnpike Authority has a job opening, applications will pile as high as the snowbanks on the highway shoulders. Why? Because according to a recent report by OPEGA — the state’s nonpartisan Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability — the MTA has been quite generous with staff. So generous that it allowed staff to use MTA credit cards to charge alcoholic drinks, top-rate hotel rooms, in-room movies and private limousine service.
Even more serious than the rather loose interpretation of travel expenses is the revelation that the MTA spent $450,000 on sponsorships and donations to various organizations in the period between 2005 and 2009. Also raising eyebrows is the MTA’s no-bid relationship with its engineering firm, HNTP.
MTA spokesman Scott Tompkins said most of the egregious spending items cited in the report are old news, and will not reoccur. “We’re embracing the report,” he said. While acknowledging the revelations are embarrassing, he said the MTA believes “it’s a pretty fair report.” And OPEGA acknowledged the MTA’s good work in long-term planning.
While the news is indeed embarrassing for the MTA, it also should remind legislators that this free-standing public highway management entity is flush, while the state Department of Transportation faces a multibillion dollar gap between revenue and its work list. Last summer, the fiscal watchdog Maine Heritage Policy Center called attention to the rising salaries at the MTA. In 2009, 74 MTA employees earned $80,000 or more in salary and benefits, up from 43 in 2006. According to the MHPC, most tollbooth attendants earn between $40,000 and $55,000.
Mr. Tompkins notes that the MTA was created as a separate entity from the state DOT so the important highway link it manages would be well maintained. And it is. It shields the turnpike from political influence, too. The MTA has a steady income through tolls and it is able to raise money through bonds; if the authority were to default on those bonds, the state would not be on the hook.
But like other quasi-governmental agencies that have their own steady and healthy revenue stream — municipal water districts come to mind — the argument could be made that the MTA should share its wealth with the DOT. Though likely an arduous process, the state could work to roll the authority under the DOT umbrella. If this were achieved, the state would be able to divert some of the turnpike’s revenue stream to other projects. The risk is that the Interstate 95 link would be shortchanged, but it’s a good bet that legislators would get an earful if the highway were neglected.
The MTA will make changes, Mr. Tompkins said, such as ending the no-bid relationship with its engineering firm. But the OPEGA report makes the case that the MTA has operated in a world quite removed from the fiscal restraint seen elsewhere in state government. “MTA … has yet to fully establish strong policies and practices to assure economic purchasing and reduce risk of inappropriate, unnecessary or excessive expenditures,” the report states.
In this post-recession era, such management is unacceptable.