State taxpayers fork over more to pay for outside consultants
Source: Howard Fischer, Arizona Business Gazette, Aug. 3, 2006 12:00 AM
Arizona taxpayers may be picking up more of the tab for highway construction than they bargained for, thanks to the heavy use of outside consultants who earn more than engineers employed by the state. A report by the state Auditor General's Office found that as of January, the Arizona Department of Transportation had 430 contracts with 121 private consultants worth $559 million. Consultants are involved in chores ranging from obtaining rights of way for highways and preparing projects for bidding to designing new roads. The agency's use of outside consultants has increased 424 percent over the past decade, even after adjusting for inflation.