Taxpayers for Common Sense just released their database of earmarks in the FY 2008 Senate Transportation/HUD Appropriations Bill, and unsurprisingly there is very little common sense to be found anywhere.

The bill contains 839 earmarked projects, worth more than $2.5 billion! Several hundred million dollars more than the pork-laden House version of the bill. But it gets even more depressing when you dig a little deeper.

As you can see from this image Minnesota’s two Senators brought home the most earmark dollars ($112,500,000):




Now, you’re probably saying, “Dominic, of course they secured the most transportation earmark funding, they just had a bridge collapse!”

But look at this list of earmarks secured by Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN):

• $65,000,000 for Northstar Corridor Rail Project
  
• $35,000,000 for Central Corridor Light Rail Transit
  
• $4,000,000 for Greater Minnesota Transit Bus and Bus Facilities
  
• $2,000,000 for Blue Earth CSAH 12 Extension/TH 14 Interchange
  
• $1,500,000 for Land acquisition
  
• $1,000,000 for Minnesota’s Union Depot Multi-Modal Transit Hub
  
• $1,000,000 for Small Bus Replacement, St. Cloud Metro Bus
  
• $1,000,000 to aid in recovery efforts of a major flood.
  
• $1,000,000 for US Highway 212 Expansion – Chaska to Norwood Young American
  
• $500,000 for TH 14 from Waseca to I-35
  
• $500,000 for Bemidji Regional Airport, Bemidji JOBZ infrastructure development project to support light manufacturing facilities
  

That’s right boys and girls, of the more than $110 million, $0 went toward road repairs of any kind, let alone bridge repairs. In fact, only 3.1 percent of all that money went towards road projects of any kind!

Minnesota isn’t the only state where bridges aren’t a priority. Check out this image that tracks how frequently words appear in the list of earmarks.




While words like “transit” and “bus” rack up nearly 200 mentions, “bridge” garners just 27 (for example, “Olympic Discovery Trail/Elwha River Pedestrian Bridge” or “Heart of America Bicycle/Pedestrian Bridge”).

But the really incredible part of this data is the per capita spending by state. On average each state secured $10.83 per capita, but as we know, no one has ever accused Ted Stevens (R-AK) of being average. Alaska secured $102.75 in Transportation earmarks for every man, woman, and child in the state. For those of you keeping track, that’s $102.01 more than New York, and more than double the next closest state.




So, raise a pork chop in honor of Senator Stevens, because no one can drive a budget off a cliff, quite like the Arctic Porker.