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Carving Pork
Don't hold your breath just yet
See King of Pork
Talk is cheap, so don't put much stock in all the discussion about carving pork out of this year's education budget.
Gov. Don Siegelman recently offered to give up his own "special projects money" if legislators gave up
theirs. Last week, Lt. Gov. Steve Windom and the Republican leadership from the House and Senate said they would
give up theirs if Siegelman and Democrats would do the same.
Unfortunately, the Republicans' offer is like someone saying he's willing not to mop up the sauce with white bread
after picking clean a plate of Dreamland ribs. There's just not much left of this year's more than $12 million
in community service grants.
Legislative records show 14 of the House's 37 Republican members already have spent every bit of their pork money
for this year, which ranged from $53,579 to $107,085. No doubt Democrats have plowed through most of their money,
as well.
While most lawmakers can argue they choose their pork projects wisely, there have been plenty of examples of questionable
spending this year, such as $10,000 on a tennis court for the Lauderdale County town of Killen and $2,500 for the
president's office at the Taj Mahal Southern Union State Community College. There's often little oversight, with
some lawmakers funneling money through school systems or setting up nonprofit organizations to dole out pork.
Besides, lawmakers shouldn't be able to hand out pork like it's their own money, spending taxpayers' dollars to
look good in an effort to get re-elected.
Siegelman's and the Republicans' offers are a step in the right direction. If they really want to do what's right,
the Legislature and the governor would agree to do away with pork not only in this year's mostly spent budget,
but in next year's budget and every year after that.
That, unlike the talk we've heard so far, would actually be worth something.
© The Birmingham News
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