New sign shade is rather costly

From CBS 2:

Here's a new reason for critics of wasteful spending in New York to see red: the color orange. It's a decision by a state bureaucrat that's costing taxpayers a lot of green.

You may have noticed it on roadwork signs – a switch from one shade of orange to another that's costing taxpayers an estimated $27 million.

For years, New York required contractors to use constructions signs with a shade of orange known as "Type 7."

That is, until the Department of Transportation decided that "Type 7" just didn't cut it anymore.

The DOT ordered road builders to buy millions of new signs in a slightly different shade of orange – "Type 9" – a change that cost the industry $27 million.

A new report from a government efficiency task force points out that contractors simply "are now passing [that cost] back onto the state in the form of higher contract prices."

There's no sign that the DOT is letting up on the questionable spending, either. It recently ordered slight changes to concrete barriers that will eventually cost taxpayers $33 million.

A state task force has ordered the DOT to appear at a hearing next week to explain these and other examples of apparently wasteful spending.