Priorities or Pork?

[realFedUp]

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=917053

BUDGET
Priorities or Pork?

All around the country, Americans are debating how best to pay for reconstruction efforts in the Gulf Coast. We've taken a sample of opinions -- from members of Congress, Bush administration officials, and Americans around the country -- to help you figure out who's more interested in clinging onto pork and tax cuts than in responsible fiscal policy and shared sacrifice.

THUMBS DOWN -- REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX): House Majority Leader Tom DeLay "scoffed at the suggestion he give up his earmarks," which are thought to total $114.4 million over five years. "My earmarks are pretty important to building an economy in that region," DeLay said. Not a surprising sentiment, considering DeLay once claimed that calling "our transportation system pork barrel would be like calling our own blood vessels and aortas pork."

THUMBS UP -- BOZEMAN, MONTANA: A citizens' group there "petitioned its congressional delegation to rescind the $4 million the city obtained for a parking garage and redirect the money to Katrina victims."

THUMBS DOWN -- SEN. PETE DOMENICI (R-NM): Domenici, the Energy Committee chair, was asked whether any of the latest energy bill's $8.5 billion in hand-outs to the fossil fuel industries should be cut back. No, he said, there "should have been more, not fewer, industry incentives."

THUMBS UP -- REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): House Minority Leader Pelosi was the first member of Congress to announce that she would give up virtually all of her $130 million in earmarks (she's keeping an earthquake retrofitting project for the Golden Gate Bridge). "I would give them up to help Katrina victims," she said. "The people of San Francisco would be very proud of that.''

THUMBS DOWN -- REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL): House Speaker Hastert could follow Pelosi's lead and "defer his prized Prairie Parkway, a $200-million-plus project dismissed as a behemoth Sprawlway by hometown critics." But he has "avoided answering whether he would make the same pledge as Pelosi."

THUMBS UP -- REP. MIKE PENCE (R-IN): Pence is following Pelosi's lead, saying "he would give up his $16 million in highway-bill earmarks to help pay Katrina's costs."

THUMBS DOWN -- REP. MIKE PENCE (R-IN): Pence is also one of the leading figures behind "Operation Offset," a set of broad spending cuts proposed this week by House conservatives. The Navy Times reported yesterday that those cuts "include trimming military quality-of-life programs, including health care." Soldiers will be asked to "accept reduced health care benefits for their families," while "the stateside system of elementary and secondary schools for military family members could be closed."

THUMBS DOWN -- REP. DON YOUNG (R-AK): Rep. Young is a self-proclaimed "little oinker" who aspires to be the "chief porker." As chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, he packed this year's transportation bill with $721 million in projects for Alaska, including more than $400 million for two "bridges to nowhere." Young’s response to those asking that his state give up some of that earmarked money? "They can kiss my ear! ... That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard."

THUMBS UP -- MICHIGAN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS: The bulk of the state's congressional delegation said last week that Congress "should consider eliminating some of President Bush's tax cuts to help pay for the massive post-Katrina reconstruction of the Gulf Coast and the ongoing war in Iraq." Rep. Joe Schwarz (R-MI): "We have to look at the wherewithal to get the job done, and you can't do it with smoke and mirrors. It may require some adjustment of the tax structure -- that's just being honest."

THUMBS UP -- SEN. JUDD GREGG (R-NH): Gregg, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, "refused to rule out" rolling back the Bush tax cuts on Wednesday as a way to offset Gulf Coast relief spending. "We've got two sides to the ledger," Gregg said. "I'm willing to look at a revenue solution ... as part of a package."

THUMBS DOWN -- SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEE: When Gregg recommended a "balanced package" of spending cuts and tax cut rollbacks, "he was met with stony silence."

THUMBS DOWN -- SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R-PA): Santorum says he won't consider giving up his earmarks, claiming it would endanger the homeland. His spokesman told reporters, "Bridges, roads and other critical infrastructure needs are vital to Pennsylvania's economy and homeland security."

THUMBS DOWN -- SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D-NJ): Lautenberg supports repealing tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans to offset Katrina costs, but even if that doesn't happen, he "doesn't believe that taking away transportation funds for New Jersey is the way to help fund relief on the Gulf Coast."

THUMBS UP -- TREASURY SECRETARY JOHN SNOW: Addressing a group of credit-union officials on Tuesday morning, Treasury Secretary Snow said that post-Katrina spending would "push to the back burner" the president's plans to extend the tax cuts this year.

THUMBS DOWN -- REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX): About 90 minutes after Snow's remarks, the Washington Post reported, DeLay "held a news conference in his office and asserted that 'we're not reexamining' the commitment to extend the tax cuts. 'That's not an option,' DeLay said, then, for emphasis, added: 'Not an option.'"

[Historic NY]

1. biggest pork........

http://www.taxpayer.net/Transportation/gravinabridge.htm

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) is trying to sell America's taxpayers a $315 million "bridge to nowhere" in rural Alaska. As Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, he is in a very good position to get his way. But Rep. Young should be stopped from using his political clout to force federal taxpayers to pay for a bridge that is ridiculous in its scope, unjustified on its merits, and far too expensive for taxpayers to swallow at a time of record federal deficits.

If Rep. Young succeeds, tiny Ketchikan, Alaska, a town with less than 8,000 residents (about 13,000 if the entire county is included) will receive hundreds of millions of federal dollars to build a bridge to Gravina Island (population: 50). This bridge will be nearly as long as the Golden Gate Bridge and taller than the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Gravina Bridge would replace a 7-minute ferry ride from Ketchikan to Ketchikan Airport on Gravina Island. Project proponents tell the public that the bridge is a transportation necessity, though the ferry system adequately handles passenger traffic between the islands, including traffic to and from the airport.1 Some herald the project as the savior of Ketchikan because it will open up land on Pennock Island to residential development, despite the fact that Ketchikan's population has been shrinking.

Project Costs

In September 2004, the U.S. Department of Transportation released its decision on the Gravina Access Project, and chose the most expensive alternative as the preferred project.2 The official cost estimate at the time was $230 million. Recently, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) increased the estimate for the project by more than one-third, to $315 million. Annual operating and maintenance costs, much of which would likely be paid for by federal taxpayers, will cost an additional $110,000.3

At $315 million, the Gravina Bridge will cost $23,649 per Ketchikan Gateway Borough resident. In comparison, Boston's Big Dig project-a massive tunneling and highway project and the poster child of government waste-cost less than one-tenth this amount on a per resident basis (see Table 1).

Comparing the Big Dig and Gravina Bridge on a per trip basis also yields striking evidence of how wasteful the Gravina Bridge project really is. Taxpayers will subsidize each trip over Gravina Bridge to the tune of more than $43, compared to about $4 for each Big Dig trip (see Table 2). That means each trip over the Gravina Bridge would cost taxpayers more than ten times as much as a trip through the most wasteful highway project in America's history!

In addition to the millions of dollars that will come from the federal government, state and local sources will be responsible for approximately $63 million, or 20 percent of the project's cost. Ketchikan residents are understandably concerned about how this shift in government priorities will affect the area's already sparse government funding. In the winter of 2002-03 snowplowing on ancillary roads in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough was discontinued due to lack of funding. Residents point out that the area's need to match the $23 million in federal funds that were allocated for the Gravina Bridge in 1997 might be causing state and local governments to cut back on much needed social services and road maintenance priorities. Building more major road projects will further exacerbate the region's inability to carry out necessary infrastructure maintenance.

Practical Planning or Political Pork?

The Gravina Access Project would purportedly improve surface transportation between Ketchikan and Gravina Island, yet there is little indication that things will be better with the bridge. Few local residents are on record complaining about the short ferry ride to Gravina, and many tourists love the ferry ride from the airport to town. One Ketchikan resident told ABC News: "When people come to Ketchikan, that little ferry ride is what they remember." And still, despite the lack of demonstrated need, federal taxpayers will pay to construct and maintain the bridge and connecting roads.

"When people come to Ketchikan, that little ferry ride is what they remember."

Rep. Young is so supportive of the Gravina Bridge that he used his significant influence as Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to secure $175 million worth of earmarks for the project in last year's failed reauthorization of the six-year transportation bill. Previously, Rep. Young secured a $1 million earmark in the fiscal year (FY) 2002 appropriations bill and a $2 million earmark in the FY 2003 appropriations bill. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) has also helped out by securing $20.4 million worth of earmarks in the 1997 "Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century" (TEA-21).6

Though Congress failed to agree on a reauthorization bill for the nation's transportation program in 2004, this will be a Congressional priority early in 2005. There is little doubt that Rep. Young will continue his attempts to secure the same massive earmarks for Gravina Bridge. He should be prevented from using his significant political power to support a wasteful and unjustified local pet project at the expense of federal taxpayers.

[realFedUp]

2. yep...you'd think that Don Young had already spent that money...

check his deep pockets.