Virginia DOT: Fund Our Bonuses or Risk Death

Tertium Quids uncovers an example of the Washington Monument ploy in Virginia, where the Virginia Department of Transportation has had difficulty justifying $200,000 in bonuses as they reduce their workforce:

For an agency that routinely cries poverty, this is rich. But who knew that bonuses make the difference between life and death?

“A structural bridge engineer, a traffic operations center — people’s lives depend on these things,” [Transportation Secretary Pierce] Homer said. “And if people want to make hay with that, they’re making hay with public safety.”

I’ve heard of the “Washington Monument” strategy, where bureaucrats facing budget reductions shut down their most popular or essential services to avoid any cuts at all. But this takes the cake.

More on the Washington Monument ploy here and here.

Photo courtesy NYCArthur.