Porkbusting

Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, has put forward the challenge to the blogging comunity to come up with a list of congressional pork which could be cut to fund the Katrina relief effort. Lets just say I'm happy to do my part. Took me all of 5 minutes to find this local gem.

1. The first item is local - mostly intra-city - public transportation.


2. The second item includes $2 million to rehabilitate a bridge which crosses the river into downtown Toledo. Not that the bridge doesn't need it, but why is that not the city's responsibility? It's not really clear from her press release or the final version of the bill what the remaining 6.4 million was for.


3. The third item listed on her press release is reconstructing a major highway interchange, at a cost of $2.4 million, but it appears to have been increased to $5 million by the time the bill cleared the Senate.


4. The last item is for a safety upgrade to US 24, which has been overburdened with traffic due to poor management of the Ohio Turnpike (I-80) by the turnpike commission.

I'll accept the need for federal funding to support the infrastructure that faciiltates interstate commerce. Why does the city of Toledo need federal funding to rebuild a city-owned bridge? Are you happy about paying for it?

How about TARTA? Most people in Toledo don't ride TARTA buses, let alone the rest of Congresswoman Kaptur's district. Let alone the rest of the country!

Bottom line: I could understand an argument that some of that money should come from the federal government. But I'd like to see Congresswoman Kaptur and Senators Voinovich and DeWine argue that the money would be better spent here than in NOLA. Total pork from NW Ohio: up to $17.9 million.

Update: Well, since posting this, I've gotten a brief hit from senate.gov. Hopefully some senate staffer has read this and passed it along. The idea is definitely getting some inside-the-beltway attention.

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