Editorial: Why no bidding?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, WI

Taxpayers may have indeed gotten a good deal on trains the state is buying from a Spanish company. In fact, they may have gotten the best deal possible. But they'll never really know, because the state didn't conduct a competitive bidding process. That shouldn't have happened.

Officials acted legally: A 12-year-old law exempts the state's passenger rail contracts from normal bidding rules. And officials say they did contact other companies. The state sought information from seven major train manufacturers, but only Spain's Talgo provided a detailed response, said Robert Jambois, the Department of Transportation's general counsel. Nippon Sharyo sent a letter, and Alstom Transport of France sent an e-mail.

Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi insisted taxpayers got a good deal. "What we've done is we tried to protect the taxpayers here, and I think we've done that," Busalacchi told the Legislature's budget committee, which signed off on the $47.1 million deal on Tuesday.

The two 14-car train sets will be used for Amtrak's Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line. The deal includes an option to buy two more train sets for a proposed 110-mph Milwaukee-to-Madison line if federal economic stimulus money comes through. The line to Madison eventually would be extended to the Twin Cities. The 420-seat trains would replace aging 350-seat trains, boosting capacity on the Hiawatha line.

But state officials should have handled this in a way that was more accountable to the public and to its representatives in the Legislature. A full competitive bidding process would have ensured taxpayers they were getting the best deal.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison), co-chairman of the committee, said he was frustrated because lawmakers didn't learn of the plan until July 17 and were told it had to be approved by Aug. 11. They rushed to set up the meeting for Tuesday but then learned there was no deadline for approving the contract.

"As a co-equal branch of government, we were informed of this two weeks ago, even though this has been in the hopper since early May," Pocan said.

"This whole process is just a sham," said Rep. Robin Vos (R-Caledonia). "It is embarrassing for the state of Wisconsin that we went ahead and are signing and negotiating without a competitive process."

"Sham" is too strong, but the criticism is warranted. This is not the way the state's business should be done. The Legislature should consider changing the no-bid law.

View original story here.