Posted June 12, 200817 yr Could maybe be merged with some other threads, but this is something which I personally don't feel is right. In an ecomomy where our states are projected to be broke by '09,..... I think this is wasted resources which ultimately could be the reason we may be paying much higher taxes within the coming years. (Rep or Dem controlled) This Legacy Place Park is going to be within a 1/2 mile from my house, and even though I believe the park itself will be a benefit to the community----- I don't feel the government should be forking the bill from a federal (state) side of the things. I felt the developer should get stuck with this. Either way thier are many projects throughout the state that get this WASTED money which often leads to larger financial gains for local politicians and thier pet projects. Pork projects? Supporters disagree BY CLIFF RADEL AND STEVE KEMME | [email protected] AND [email protected] http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20080611/NEWS01/306110104/ Eighty-five million dollars could be coming home to Southwest Ohio. Legislators passed Ohio’s capital construction budget bill Tuesday. Gov. Ted Strickland is expected to sign the bill next week. Provided he doesn’t exert his line item veto powers on individual projects, those millions will soon start flowing south.
June 12, 200817 yr Southwest Ohio Allocations Area state capital budget projects Cincinnati Museum Center $2.5 million Riverfront Park $2 million Cincinnati Art Museum $1.5 million Cincinnati Zoo $1.5 million Music Hall $1.1 million American Red Cross facility – Cincinnati $1 million Little Miami Trail Extension – Hamilton County Park District $1 million Sharonville Convention Center $1 million Greentree Health Science Academy, Sinclair Community College $1 million National Underground Railroad Freedom Center $850,000 Voice of America Museum, Butler County $500,000 Green Township Legacy Place Park $500,000 Colerain Township Park $500,000 Newtown Indian Artifact Museum $300,000 New Richmond Park, Clermont County $300,000 Clifton Cultural Arts Center $250,000 Cincinnati Ballet $250,000 Beckett Park improvements, West Chester, Butler County $250,000 Mariemont – Women’s Cultural Arts Center $220,000 First Step Home, (Dept. of Alcohol & Drug Addiction Services) $200,000 BalletTech $200,000 Wyoming City Regional Park $200,000 Hebrew Union College Archives $185,000 Blue Ash City Conference Center (Cincinnati State) $150,000 Forest Park Health Care Facility $150,000 Health Care Connection – Lincoln Heights $150,000 Beech Acres $125,000 People Working Cooperatively $120,000 Covedale Theatre $100,000 Addyston Boat Ramp $100,000 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals $100,000 Rivers Edge Amphitheater, Butler County $100,000 Monroe Veterans Memorial Park, Butler County $100,000 Rivers Edge Bikeway, Butler County $100,000 Springboro Park improvements, Warren County $100,000 Ault Park improvements $75,000 Madeira Historical Society/Miller House $60,000 Forest Park homeland security facility $50,000 Mohawk Veterans’ Memorial $15,000 UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Basic Renovations $10.7 million Medical Science Building Renovation and Expansion $26.4 million Barrett Cancer Center $1.5 million Raymond Walters Renovations $501,195 Raymond Walters New Building $1.58 million Renovations, Clermont County $1.07 million Consolidated Communication Project of Clermont County $400,000 CINCINNATI STATE TECHNICAL AND COMMUNITY COLLEGE Basic Renovations $1.25 million Classroom Upgrade Project $270,000 Lot C Parking Lot $250,000 Ceiling Replacement $75,000 Electrical Surge Protection $100,000 Campus Signage $75,000 Window and Garage Doors $175,659 Window Replacement $100,000 MIAMI UNIVERSITY Basic renovations, Oxford $5.61 million Basic renovations, Hamilton $686,759 Basic renovations, Middletown $588,815 Upham Hall North Wing Rehabilitation $3.6 million Academic and administrative projects $2.44 million Laws Hall Rehabilitation $6.25 million Western Steam Distribution Project $1.5 million COUNTY TOTALS Butler County total (includes Miami University) $22.51 million Clermont County total (includes University of Cincinnati) $2.37 million Hamilton County total (includes UC and Cincinnati State) $59.62 million Warren County total S1.1 million
June 12, 200817 yr This is a good thread. What happens too often, is a good bill with good intentions becomes saddled with pork. People's pet projects. Like the Bridge To Nowhere. But it's too easy to misread everything as pork. As John Stuart lampooned Ted Steven's continued push for the Bridge To Nowhere, where even the residents on the opposite shore was hesitant towards the project, he made the comment that there was a "four-lane bridge to nowhere between Chesapeake, Ohio and Huntington, West Virginia." Mentioning of course, Chesapeake's few hundred inhabitants and not mentioning that it completed a four-lane highway network and replaced an antiquated two-lane span. Then, how do you classify Robert C. Byrd's contributions? Many in his home state don't see it as pork, but many outsiders do. Byrd brings home the highway dollars, and studies concluded that West Virginia still receives fewer lane dollars than other states because a typical one-mile stretch of highway can run anywhere from $10 million to $50 million. Even upgrading two-lane roads can be an expensive venture.
June 12, 200817 yr Very good documentary which I watched last weel on Fox news. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,361061,00.html Interesting just how corrupt some of our elected officials really are. How can the Ethics Committee not see anything wrong with some of these guys.
June 13, 200817 yr Some of these are most certainly pork, but most of the projects I would classify as good projects that need public support to happen. With the way our funding systems are set up it doesn't allow regular funding to go to particular projects. As a result you see these specific projects come up in spending bills. While I don't agree with wasteful spending and/or pork projects, I think it would be a bad idea to carte blanch get rid of spending bills like this. What I would like to see is a more detailed report describing exactly what projects got what money. I would also like there to be a searchable database (online) so that you could track which projects are supported by which politicians. This would hopefully allow more public insight as to what our elected officials are actually up to.
July 6, 200816 yr We, in one of the wealthiest communities in the state, got a $50,000 federal earmark for the Kirtland sewer project. Courtesy of Congressman Steven Latourette. I think that it was in his last days as a majority party member of the House Pork Committee.
July 6, 200816 yr Very good documentary which I watched last weel on Fox news. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,361061,00.html Interesting just how corrupt some of our elected officials really are. How can the Ethics Committee not see anything wrong with some of these guys. From the program description, that looks like a surprisingly good investigative piece for commercial TV. I'd guess that the "incidental" enrichment story is common one among our legislators, but three stories profiled are pretty egregious.
July 30, 200816 yr I've been reading up on that... He's already been stripped of his once-powerful committee seats. His colleagues are donating his campaign contributions to charity. And others are distancing themselves from him. Good riddens.
August 6, 200816 yr I'm waiting for a politician to run for office by promising to bring home as much pork as possible. I would actually consider voting for such a candidate.
August 6, 200816 yr I'm waiting for a politician to run for office by promising to bring home as much pork as possible. I would actually consider voting for such a candidate. Well that's the sad state of affairs...You don't want to break the bank bringing home pork for the Corn Palace, but you gotta bring home the bacon or your constituents will vote you out for not bringing enough money back to the district. And then your voters see their tax money filtering away to Alaska for this and Alabama for that because the politician took the high road.
August 6, 200816 yr Their is ALOT of disheartening crap on these lists. Pick your year!! http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reports_pigbook2008
August 6, 200816 yr 50 odd million already on the Main St bridge; so let's build one a block away for $30 million (the Town St bridge is what's being replaced with this). We could use that money to make all of Front St and Main St two-way and bike-friendly along with money left over for traffic calming for other roads this year, but no.
September 22, 200816 yr I'll start... The following two stories should be of no surprise to those that have grown up in eastern Kentucky... Tangled alliances in sale of land By John Cheves, Herald-Leader, September 21, 2008 INEZ — Before it broke ground for its $6 million office building, Martin County bought part of the land — valued at $120,000 for tax purposes — for more than twice that sum from two local businessmen, including banker Mike Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee...
September 22, 200816 yr $6 million building for tiny town By John Cheves, Herald-Leader, September 21, 2008 INEZ — Martin County is spending $6 million in coal severance taxes to erect a large office building meant to attract high-tech companies and other private-sector employers to this tiny, dilapidated town of fewer than 500 people. But so far, no business has emerged to sign a lease in the new Martin County Business Center, set to open next year... stage."
September 22, 200816 yr Sounds like a business opportunity, Sherman. Create a paper corporation, get some names from tombstones at an out-of-town cemetery as co-signatories, create a business plan to create fifty or a hundred six-figure jobs in coal-derived molecular biosciences, promise to underwrite a vocational training program for the unemployed, harvest a couple million in incentives, and disappear into the night. It might be helpful to hire Messrs. Booth & Duncan for $100K or so, apiece, as consultants to help you find your way through the local bureaucracy.
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