Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released its preliminary analysis of the U.S. Conference of Mayors' wish-list of "shovel-ready" spending projects, entitled "Mainstreet Recovery - Ready to Go Infrastructure Report," available at: http://www.usmayors.org/mainstreeteconomicrecovery/documents/mser-report-200812.pdf.
Intended as a menu of options for the next new federal stimulus package, the mayors' wish-list is loaded to the brim with more than 31,000 earmarks totaling $73.2 billion, four times the total amount of federal pork contained in the appropriations bills for the entire fiscal year 2008. Here are but a few of the numerous outrageous examples:
- $1.1 billion for 41 projects to improve Amtrak infrastructure;
- $718.5 million for 54 projects directed to museums;
- $192.6 million for 12 projects directed to stadiums, including $150 million for the Metromover Extension to Marlins Stadium in Miami, Florida. In 2008, the Florida Marlins had the worst attendance in Major League Baseball, playing in front of an average crowd of 16,668 fans, or 45.9 percent of their stadium's capacity;
- $87 million for 56 projects for bicycle paths;
- $6 million for a reclamation/improvement project at Surfers Point beach in Ventura, California;
- $1.5 million for an initiative to reduce prostitution in Dayton, Ohio;
- $700,000 to plant 1,600 trees along the sidewalks in Providence, Rhode Island; and,
- $500,000 for environmentally-friendly golf courses in Dayton, Ohio.
"The Mayors apparently think that Christmas has come early," said CAGW President Tom Schatz. "It is outrageous that the mayors would use this economic crisis as an opportunity to obtain federal funding for these wasteful, low priority projects, which apparently offer excellent photo opportunities for them, but will do nothing to stimulate the economy in the long term."
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.