Watchdog Slams Reckless Taxpayer Spending in West Des Moines

For Immediate Release                                                                                               Contact:  Courtney Mattison (202-525-7492) 

August 3, 2021                                                                                                                                                            

West Des Moines, Iowa – In a predicted turn of events, the cost of the City of West Des Moines, Iowa’s Google Fiber conduit project continues to skyrocket.  At a recent meeting, the City Council approved a third contract expansion for the project’s consultant.  The initial consulting contract was for $1,101,407.  The most recent expansion increased the consulting fees to a total of $3,482,582, an increase of 316 percent.  According to the city engineer’s meeting summary, the increased fees are needed because the original agreement only anticipated the need for one part-time inspector for each of several phases of the construction project, which has turned out to be insufficient to provide appropriate oversight.  Initially projected to have a cost of $40 million, the City of West Des Moines’ broadband conduit project will undoubtedly cost taxpayers far more than anticipated. 

Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) Senior Fellow Chip Baltimore stated, “Sadly, we see this all the time.  Consultants come in and sell a city on a taxpayer-funded and municipally-owned broadband project, and once the city is on the hook, the fees and costs rapidly increase.  Cost increases of double or triple the initial projections are far too common.  If these consultants were truly worth the millions of dollars they charge for these services, one would think they could more accurately estimate the costs at the beginning of the project rather than after a city has committed taxpayer funds.”

Baltimore continued, “although marketed by the city as a conduit system ‘open’ to all, the City’s agreement with Google Fiber gave the $2-trillion dollar company exclusive rights to the conduit for the initial stages after completion.  This is pure corporate welfare, handing in excess of $40 million taxpayer dollars to one of the most valuable companies in the world while stifling competition in the process.  And as the costs continue to rise over the initial projections, that irresponsibility only grows.”

#

Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.