In electing our leaders, we willingly subject ourselves not only to the whims of their ideals but to the shortcomings of their character.
We pay out of pocket for their successes and failures.
With the revelation of this state’s blatant mismanagement of infrastructural decay at the University, we catch a glimpse of the disorder our leaders are capable of.
In 2005, international consulting firm VFA, under contract with the state, assessed the extent of decay in the state’s public facilities – a process meant to take place routinely as a means of gauging and planning statewide renovations.
The University is counted among those assessed public facilities.
Thanks to the state’s negligence, this process has not been undertaken since, and after seven years of further deterioration – and paying the VFA more than a quarter of a million dollars to sit tight – the price of disarray has added up.
The inflation-adjusted price to bring our University’s infrastructure up to safety standards in 2005 was $255 million, which is approximately 24 percent of the original cost of the buildings themselves, according to the VFA’s 2005 report as detailed by The Daily Reveille’s investigation.
Put simply, the price to repair these buildings cost nearly a quarter of the buildings’ initial price.
According to Ken Courtade, a former member of the state’s office of Facility Planning and Control and LSU Facility Services manager of Long Range Planning, the typical ratio of cost of renovation to initial cost hovers around 15 percent nationwide.
The University’s 24 percent, however, does not factor in roofs, roads, sewers or sidewalks, boosting the estimate of $255 million closer to $500 million, according to Courtade.
But the issue doesn’t necessarily lie in these staggering prices from 2005.
Over the past seven years, the state has indeed managed to address a number of the issues listed on the VFA’s 2005 assessment.
The problem is that policymakers have made it unconstitutional to allocate renovations funds to projects not listed on the assessment, so any degradation that has occurred over the years but was not mentioned in 2005 is unapproachable.
And without the VFA’s monitoring and consultation, the state is left unaware of problems occurring after 2005 until it is too late – such as when concrete begins to fall from derelict University buildings as it did from the Hill Memorial Library in February.
By neglecting to commission an assessment for seven years, we’ve managed to tie our hands behind our backs.
But one question seems obvious: How can the University continue to support new projects when our renovations have fallen so far behind?
The first answer is that most of the funds for new projects come from private donations and capital outlay, or money set aside for specific purposes which cannot be allocated elsewhere.
Considering that any and all renovation money must be tied to a project on the 2005 assessment, however, it may be that it’s easier for the state to fund new projects given the unconstitutional nature of funding unreported renovations.
In most cases, it seems, the state’s hands are tied.
We put all of the state’s rotten eggs into one basket and handed that basket to the VFA consulting firm – then paid them to hold onto it while we did our best to forget the transaction ever happened.
We also decided that we could only fund what the VFA said needed funding. All we have to go on, however, is a seven-year-old report, leaving us blind to new infrastructural problems until systems fail.
It has been said a man will push his broken-down car until the last wheel falls off before he concedes to visit a mechanic.
Our policymakers have pushed that car and paid for nothing for seven years now, and eventually something big will force it to organize.
Bob Kuhn, associate vice chancellor of Budget and Planning, put it best.
“It’s just like in your home. If the roof falls in, then you fix the roof. Unfortunately, that’s how deferred maintenance moves to the top of the list.”
The state’s blindness to its own problems is disgraceful.
We signed a contract with the VFA and even incorporated the company’s assessments into our state’s constitution. Though paying them, we’ve not once solicited their aid for seven years while floundering to catch up with crucial renovations.
We’ve directly wasted more than a quarter of a million dollars by not utilizing the VFA’s services we pay for, and we’ve indirectly wasted millions by blindly allowing our facilities to decay.
How can we fight budget cuts in light of such needless waste?
Clayton Crockett is a 20-year-old international studies sophomore from Lafayette. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_ccrockett. 
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Contact Clayton Crockett at [email protected]