Federal highway funds raided for congressional pet projects

By Sharon Theimer

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — For the first time, members of Congress have dipped directly into a pot of highway money destined for the states, including Washington, to help pay for local projects dear to lawmakers.

In doing so, an Associated Press computer analysis found, Congress steered a large amount of the redirected money toward pet projects in the home states of lawmakers who crafted the final spending plan.

Among the winners:

  • $3 million for Seattle’s Odyssey Maritime museum, championed by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., co-chairman of the panel that wrote the final plan.

  • $2 million for downtown revitalization in Somerset, Ky., the hometown of the other co-chairman, Republican Rep. Hal Rogers.

  • $2.9 million for airport construction in Sugar Land, Texas, hometown of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. He was on the joint panel of House members and senators who wrote the final spending blueprint.

    The shift toward more pet projects cost state and local governments about 11 percent of the money they originally were to get from Washington, D.C. to spend on transportation as they saw fit.

    In Ohio, that means fewer roads with crumbling 1960s era pavement will be repaved, officials said.

    California, the most populous state but without representation on the panel that approved the plan, lost the most money in general highway aid ($41.5 million), whereas Washington lost $7.3 million.

    California also ranged near the bottom in project dollars when measured as a percentage of population. In contrast, Alabama, with three lawmakers on the panel, finished near the top in project money.

    "It’s the classic definition of pork," said Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wis., a member of House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee who voted against the bill.

    But it comes with a new twist.

    While Congress regularly finances pet projects of lawmakers who have clout in spending decisions, this is the first time it has done so by taking away money from the general highway formula money going to the states with no strings attached, according to the House committee.

    As it wound its way through Congress, the $59.6 billion transportation bill already had set aside money for special projects, known as earmarks — between $3 billion and $4 billion in all.

    But with money hard to find in a budget pinched by tax cuts and the costs of war and recession, that total was judged insufficient to do everything lawmakers wanted for their voters — such as a $500,000 roadside animal detection experiment in Montana.

    So lawmakers lowered the amount of discretionary highway money planned for the states, and freed hundreds of millions of more dollars for their projects.

    The AP’s review found several states whose lawmakers helped shape the final legislation made out far better than larger, more populous states.

    For instance, Washington ended up with at least $191 million in earmarks, while Ohio, with more than double the population, got roughly $66 million.

    That amounts to about $32.50 per resident in pet projects for Washington, but only about $6 per person for Ohio, which had no one on the conference committee.

    The budget tinkering means vast stretches of Ohio’s interstates that have crumbling pavement from the 1960s will not be resurfaced, State Transportation Director Gordon Proctor said.

    Proctor said his department urges its representatives to push for transportation money distributed by formulas that treat all the states equitably rather than earmarked projects.

    "When the funds go into earmarks, they’re coming away from the basic categories that maintain the very infrastructure," he said.

    The budget tinkering, however, does not surprise veterans such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. At each stop of the budgeting process in Congress, lawmakers with clout add projects.

    "They are emasculating the entire process by going into a back room and dividing up the pork," McCain said. "That is a misuse of power."

    Despite having no representation on the committee, California got the most total dollars for pet highway, bridge, ferry, train, airport and other projects — at least $341 million, the AP analysis found.

    But when measured by California’s population, it averaged near the bottom at about $10 in projects per resident.

    Alaska got about $178 per person in projects, the most of any state, followed by West Virginia with roughly $82 per person. Both had senators on the conference committee.

    Ten of the other 15 states receiving the biggest share of pet projects also had lawmakers on the panel. They include Washington, Texas, Illinois, Alabama, Minnesota, Kentucky, New York, Maryland, Missouri and Florida.

    Several of those states also had the most projects added in the conference committee: roughly $96 million for Kentucky, $75 million for Alabama, $42 million for West Virginia and $37 million for Illinois, the AP review found.

    Washington had $21.2 million added in the conference committee.

    Money for Washington added in the committee included $1 million for the I-5-Highway 432 interchange access, $12 million to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, $3 million each to the state WorkFirst Transportation Initiative and the Odyssey Maritime Project in Seattle, and $1 million to the Spokane Transit Authority. Pearson Airpark and Quillayute Airport each picked up $500,000, and $200,000 went to international ferry service from Blaine to British Columbia.

    Facts and figures on the federal transportation spending bill signed in December by President Bush. (Multistate projects not included in these totals.)

  • Total transportation-bill spending: $59.6 billion.

    Local project money: At least $4.2 billion.

  • Total transportation money for Washington: $700.5 million

    Total project money for Washington: $191.1 million ($32.42 per capita)

    Amount of general highway aid lost from federal allocation: $7.3 million

  • States at the top in pet projects: California, at least $341 million; Texas, $209 million; Washington state; New Jersey, $189.8 million; Illinois, $167 million; Alabama, $157 million; West Virginia, $148 million; Minnesota, $147 million; Kentucky, $145 million; Florida, $144 million.

  • States losing the most general highway formula aid: California, about $41.5 million; Texas, $33.4 million; New York, $22.4 million; Florida, $20.2 million; Pennsylvania, $20 million; Ohio, $15.9 million; Georgia, $15.3 million; Illinois, $14 million; Michigan, $13.6 million.

  • States losing the least general highway formula aid: Hawaii and Maine, each about $2.2 million; Delaware and Vermont, each about $2.3 million; New Hampshire, nearly $2.4 million; Rhode Island, $2.7 million; Nevada, Idaho and North Dakota, each around $3.1 million. (Washington lost $7.3 million.)

  • Most states receiving the biggest share of pet projects, including Washington, also had lawmakers on the panel that crafted the final spending plan.

    SOURCE: Associated Press

    Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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