Shortly after the extent of the damage caused by hurricane Katrina’s became clear, Independent Sources’ vast editorial staff planned to write a post proposing that part of the federal government’s costs be offset by reductions in the recently passed porkfest known as the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). The pork content of that single bill may range as high as $25b.

For some reason we never wrote that post. But others have had the same idea. For instance, the Wall Street Journal ($):

Is it asking too much for Richmond, Indiana, to give up $3 million for its hiking trail, or Newark, New Jersey, to put a hold on its $2 million bike path? And in the face of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, couldn’t Alaskans put a hold on the infamous $454 million earmark for the two “bridges to nowhere” that will serve a town of 50 people?

Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) proposed on CNN to do away with:

$2.6 million for walkway and bikeway improvements in Coney Island; $1.3 million for sidewalk lighting and landscaping at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; and $1.3 million for a day-care center and park-and-ride facility in Champaign, Illinois.

This idea is gaining momentum. The Heritage Foundation pointed us to the “Porkbusters” site, created by Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) and N. Z. Bear (of The Truth Laid Bear). At Porkbusters (which just went up on Sunday) you can see which Senators and Representatives have committed to cut pork in their state or district, and lists of pork projects by state, with running totals.

This list is being built by bloggers, and “only” $720m had been identified in California so far — so there is plenty of room for your nominations!
To get things started, the Heritage Foundation compiled all their pork reports into a blog, which they have cross-posted to Porkbusters.

If you want to contribute, a good starting point is Taxpayers for Common Sense. They have compiled a database of the earmarked (most porky) projects on a state-by-state basis. The California list is here. Their nationwide list of all the earmarks in the bill is here.

We propose terminating these California projects:

- an unwanted Bay Area ferry terminal SF (cost: $20m) which seems to have received funding because its promoters made campaign contributions to the right people (see our post here)

- In August, Insider (here and here) wrote:

we’ve all heard the expression (and song) “nobody walks in LA.” That will come as a surprise to the folks who put in a special $2 million appropriation to “construct pedestrian enhancements on Broadway in Los Angeles” (Earmark #517). There is another $1.6 million to enhance pedestrian environment and increase safety along Olympic Blvd. at Western Avenues (unless part of this money is going to address the crime in that area there won’t be all that much improvement in safety). There are even more unusual “earmarks” such as $1,672,000 for the California Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach to build intermodal park and ride facility, $1,337,600 to incorporate safety improvements at a (single) bus stop in Monterey Park. (At a time when the median home price in Monterey Park is about $450,000, couldn’t we just purchase three homes in the area to serve as bus stop?). Our favorite … is the $209,000 to acquire one “trolley” bus vehicle for the City of Carson. (Earmark # 407). Can these hideous trolley buses really cost he same as a Ferrari Maranello?

- just looking at page 1 of the TFCS list of California projects, I can tell you that lightly-travelled and ultra-wide Douglas Street in El Segundo does not need $3.2m of improvements. And does the Simi Valley Freeway need $2.3 of aesthetic landscaping (albeit “high priority” aesthetic landscaping)?

We have ideas for other states. Alaska’s infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” — a $353m structure that will serve 50 people — is obvious. We would also target Nevada’s “Really Fast Train to Nowhere,” which received $45m in funding in TEA-21. We wrote about here and here.

Let’s get to work!
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California Conservative and BoxerWatch are promoting Porkbusters too.

Technorati Tags: Katrina, pork spending, transportation bill

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 20th, 2005 at 2:12 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under California Schemin', Your Tax Dollars In Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.