WIU Riverfront project makes watchdog group's annual "Pig Book"
A leading taxpayer watchdog group "Citizens Against Government Waste" publishes its "Pig Book", an annual report detailing what it considers the most notorious examples of pork barrel spending.
The $250,000 for the Western Illinois University riverfront campus project in Moline made the list of wasteful spending.
The entry in the report lists it as "NBR C", which means there's been no budget request, and it was added in conference. You can find a searchable database of their pork projects here. Searching on the state of Illinois, Transportation appropriations, and keyword "Western" will take you to the WIU entry.
A few other entries to do with spending at the Arsenal also made the list.
In order to qualify for the Pig Book, a measure must meet certain criteria, as their site explains:
The 375 projects, totaling $3.4 billion, in this year’s Congressional Pig Book Summary symbolize the most egregious and blatant examples of pork. As in previous years, all of the items in the Congressional Pig Book Summary meet at least one of CAGW’s seven criteria, but most satisfy at least two:
* Requested by only one chamber of Congress;
* Not specifically authorized;
* Not competitively awarded;
* Not requested by the President;
* Greatly exceeds the President’s budget request or the previous year’s funding;
* Not the subject of congressional hearings; or
* Serves only a local or special interest.
posted by The Inside Dope @ 4/17/2006
5 comments
5 Comments:
I want more pork. Feed me and I shall grow.
I'm not sure it's the Dispatch that is complaining. I think they only noted that the WIU project was included as "pork" in this group's report.
As a matter of fact, the D/A had a recent editorial where they noted that very little had been done on the WIU project, but that even that little bit was welcome and a step in the right direction and they applauded all those who are working at it.
Here's the link.
http://qconline.com/qcnews/archives/qco/sections.cgi?prcss=display&id=284363
I don't know how they can consider a public university in an area that desperately needs it to be pork. I guess to me pork has a connotation of waste, not just "serves only a local interest." Or they just pad their list with a few small but non-pork projects that they hope no one will notice.
The way that pigs are raised now a days there is hardly any waste!
an investment in higher education is not pork. an investment in an initiative that will bring $10 million a year in economic growth and create surrounding businesses that will generate another tens of millions a year when all is said and done is not "pork."
too bad that watchdog group didn't do its homework before firing off those awards.
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