May 12, 2005
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"It's not a good way to legislate, although I got a lot of stuff in it [the transportation bill]...I mean I stuffed it like a turkey." Rep. Don Young (R-AK) from a story in the New York Times (Built With Steel, Perhaps, but Greased With Pork, April 10, 2004), citing a story in the Anchorage Daily News. Riding the Gravy Train In what is now a time honored congressional tradition, the House stuffed its bill with $12.4 billion worth of earmarks, driving up the cost of the bill and taking control of transportation spending away from local decision-makers. In addition, it's impossible to know how many of the more than 4,000 earmarks in the bill are good projects worthy of taxpayer support. Far too often, these projects harm the communities they are supposed to be helping and cause unnecessary environmental damage. Now more than ever, Congress's appetite for parochial pork has become more important than reducing congestion and fixing the nation's crumbling infrastructure. Earmarks in the bill include $3 million to renovate the Packard Museum and $200 million for a "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska, and these and many other similar provisions make it hard to understand how these are improving the nation's transportation system. With everyone jockeying for a piece of the pie, there are too few who are minding how large the pie has become. Taxpayers for Common Sense website on transportation bill reauthorization: http://www.taxpayer.net/Transportation/capitolhill.htm The Knik Arm Crossing would connect downtown Anchorage with undeveloped land in the Mat-Su Valley, largely at the request of private developers who salivate at the idea of developing this land. Meanwhile, the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce has expressed concern that the project could drive down property values and drain tax revenues. The project would cost state and federal taxpayers as much as $2 billion, $200 million of which is coming from an earmark in the House-passed highway bill. The Gravina Access project would connect tiny Ketchikan to Gravina Island, which has less than 50 inhabitants. Proponents defend the $2 billion project as a transportation necessity in order to connect Ketchikan with its airport, but a 10-minute ferry ride easily handles the traffic generated by the airport's six daily flights. What the bridge would do is make thousands of acres of timber on Gravina Island available for logging, which is likely the real motivation for this project. Chalk this up as a $223 million gift (so far) for the timber industry in Alaska. Rep. Don Young receives Golden Fleece Award: http://www.taxpayer.net/Transportation/gravinabridge.htm Pain in the Tongass Over the decades, the red ink has skyrocketed. Since 1982, taxpayers have lost over $850 million dollars in the Tongass. Last year, the Forest Service continued its trend of losing money, hitting a nearly two-decade high of $48 million. Taxpayer losses over the coming decade could reach one billion dollars. What do taxpayers have to show for their investment? Not much. Logging levels are hovering at record lows, timber-related employment is down drastically, and the tourism and fishing industries continue to lose vital resources to clear-cuts and needless road projects. Green Scissors Caucus co-chairs, Representatives Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Robert Andrews (D-NJ), are fighting to overcome this fiscal waste. Last year the House passed their amendment to limit road building subsidies in the Tongass for one year--though the Senate failed to take action. With the Tongass subsidies back in the Interior Appropriations bill again this year you can bet there will be another push to prevent using taxpayer dollars to underwrite the timber industry's cost of doing business. Taxpayers for Common Sense Website on the Tongass Timber Program: http://www.taxpayer.net/forest/tongass/index.htm And that's an order! EO 13274 created a list of "fast-tracked" priority transportation projects. Several of the roads on this list are some of the worst in the nation, according to the report Road to Ruin. The "fast-tracking" undermines current laws that ensure meaningful public participation and rigorous environmental and public interest review. For example, when the Circumferential Highway in Burlington, Vermont was put on the list, it rapidly moved forward over the vocal protests of area stakeholders even though a report by an independent transportation engineering firm showed that the road was not worth the cost. Only when a federal judge ruled that planners had not adequately studied the impacts of the highway and that alternative transportation options were not explored did the project come to a halt. The $223 million for the Circ will not be fast-tracked down any time soon. But other roads such as the $3 billion Inter County Connector in Maryland, the $4 billion I-66 in Kentucky, and the $336 million Interstate 93 project in New Hampshire are still being expedited under this order. View Executive Order 13274 at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/stewardshipeo/eo13274.htm The Green Scissors Campaign, led by Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense and U.S. Public Interest Research Group, is dedicated to protecting taxpayers and the environment. Tell a friends about the Green Scissors Campaign. Sign up to receive The Chopping Block and other Green Scissors Campaign updates. To unsubscribe to the Chopping Block, please reply to this email with the word unsubcribe in the body of the email. |
