Check and Balance

After reading Rubin’s Chapter 8 Budget Implementation and Control I would like to share a work-related example of the existing federal, state and local discretion-abuse-control cycle.

The Borough of Chambersburg has received federal transportation earmark funding allocated by Congressman Bill Shuster. Leftover money that was originally allocated to other county transportation projects has been offered to the Borough for use on state and/or local street improvement projects. While this type of funding is often criticized as pork, the reality is that most federal earmarks of this nature ultimately follow some type of administrative process that is supposed to ensure the money is spent appropriately. However, as noted by Rubin the discretion-abuse-control cycle can be undermined at various levels of the administrative process beyond direct control of the elected official.

In our case, the federal transportation earmark funding is administered locally by the PA Department of Transportation (PennDot) through the Franklin County Rural Planning Organization and the Transportation Improvement Program that they control. While an earmark project is not technically approved as part of the annual federal transportation funding budget controlled by the RPO it must be reviewed and processed according to federal regulations and PennDot criteria for environmental clearance, engineering/design, permitting, etc. At a recent RPO meeting, PennDot representatives discussed federal audit results that included no findings related to management of the federal funding distribution, project planning and implementation system they administer.

Ironically, elected officials can at times become frustrated with this type of system. When well managed and operated according to the regulations the system is extremely methodical and slow. As a result, it typically takes twice as long to plan a road improvement project than it does to build it. At any rate, elected officials that are not knowledgeable of the system and skilled at facilitating an earmark through the system can find themselves in a bind when the funding that was earmarked to their constituency is jeopardized by other political and budgetary pressures. Something that is prevalent during the current federal budget struggles.

As we have learned from Rubin, and our class discussions, our government is not lacking regulations and oversight. Following the regulations or ignoring them is up to those who are elected, appointed or hired to create policy, provide funding and administer programs.