Group says $99m allotted to Mass.
By Jim Geraghty, States News Service, 4/10/2002
Citizens Against Government Waste declared that pork-barrel spending has exploded in recent years and continued to grow after Sept. 11, even as the nation fought the war on terrorism and dealt with a slowing economy.
The report stated that Congress spent $9 billion on specially earmarked projects last year, on everything from $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in San Luis Obispo, Calif., to a $2 million grant to refurbish the Vulcan Statue in Birmingham, Ala.
''After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, President Bush asked the nation to return to business as usual,'' said the group's president, Tom Schatz. ''Unfortunately, many members of Congress took him way too literally. Instead of protecting the nation, they protected their incumbency by porking out at record levels.''
At a Washington news conference, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said the growth of pork-barrel spending on defense amounted to ''war profiteering.''
As in previous years, all the items in the Pig Book summary meet at least one of seven criteria: requested by only one chamber of Congress; not specifically authorized by a federal agency; not competitively awarded; not requested by the president; greatly exceed the president's budget request or the previous year's funding; not be the subject of congressional hearings; or serve only a local or special interest.
The $99 million in federal funding going to Massachusetts that the group labeled as pork includes $1 million for educational and cultural programs at Shakespeare Rose Theater in Lenox, $1 million for buses and bus facilities in Attleboro, $400,000 for a sign project at New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park, $250,000 for bluefin tuna tagging at the New England Aquarium, $250,000 for historic preservation of City Hall in Taunton, and $125,000 for an online education center at Plimoth Plantation.
The group's list of pork in Boston includes $5.06 million to replace the air-traffic control facilities at Logan International Airport, $1.75 million to alter and repair the Chelsea Street Bridge, $1.5 million for repairs and upkeep on the Longfellow Bridge in Cambridge, and $1 million for a higher-education program for low-income and minority students at Urban College of Boston.
McCain and Schatz emphasized that for some projects, they objected not to the goals of the funding, but to the method in which it was distributed.
''They never go through any process for scrutiny or authorization, which would then legitimize those projects,'' McCain said. ''We don't know if they are good or bad.''
Overall, Massachusetts received less pork than 48 other states and the District of Columbia, beating out only Illinois, Colorado, and Puerto Rico. According to the report, the Bay State received roughly $15.56 per citizen. By comparison, the top state, Alaska, received about $451 million, or $710.88 per citizen.
This story ran on page A12 of the Boston Globe on 4/10/2002.
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