A Republican state senator says a highly critical audit of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is ``devastating'' and will force major changes at the agency. T
he nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau released its highly anticipated report Thursday. It found that DOT dramatically underestimated costs of completed and ongoing projects and failed to take into account inflation and other unexpected cost increases.
Sen. Rob Cowles is co-chairman of the Legislature's Audit Committee. He tells WHBY that the audit ``will be devastating to the management of DOT.'' He says, ``They have to do this whole thing differently.''
The report comes as the department faces a nearly $1 billion budget shortfall. Gov. Scott Walker has insisted on solving that without raising taxes or fees, while Assembly Republicans have called for $300 million in increases offset by unnamed tax cuts elsewhere.
The audit says the cost of 16 ongoing major highway projects increased more than $3 billion from the time they were approved to August 2016.
DOT Secretary Mark Gottlieb resigned three weeks ago. Gov. Scott Walker had no immediate comment on the audit.