Pork for the Road -- Showtime at the Apollo

The $286 billion highway bill has a lot of roadside attractions:

• 6 million for a Vermont snowmobile trail
• a $100,000 traffic light in Canoga Park, California
• A provision requiring the Economic Development Administration to lease and improve the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York (right)

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has counted 6,000 items in the bill he considers pork barrel projects. His criteria for pork:

• An appropriation that is not properly authorized by the Senate and not requested by the Administration.
• An unauthorized and unrequested, locality-specific or facility-specific earmark (including those funds that are above the Admin. request).
• A budget add-on that would be subject to a budget point of order.
• The transfer or disposal of federal property or items under terms that circumvent existing law.
• New items added in conference that were never considered in either bill in either House.

His list of pork in the highway bill includes horse trails, jogging paths, and museums:

• $2,320,000 to add landscaping enhancements along the Ronald Reagan Freeway Route 118 for aesthetic purposes.
• $480,000 to rehabilitate a historic warehouse on the Erie Canal in the Town of Lyons, New York.
• $600,000 for High Knob Horse Trails, construction of horse riding trails and associated facilities in High Knob area of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia (right).
• $2,560,000 for the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Corridor in Virginia.
• $120,000 for Town of St. Paul – restoration of Hillman House to serve as trail information center.
• $400,000 to rehabilitate and redesign Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, New York.
• $2,400,000 for the National Infantry Museum Transportation Network, Georgia.
• $960,000 for transportation enhancements to Children’s Museum of Los Angeles.
• $1,200,000 for the Rocky Knob Heritage Center in Virginia.
• $1,600,000 for the Blue Ridge Music Center in Connecticut.
• $200,000 for the Deer Avoidance System, to deter deer from milepost markers in Pennsylvania and New York.
• $1,280,000 for the Cultural & Interpretative Center in Richland, Washington.
• $1,200,000 for the planning and engineering of The American Road, The Henry Ford Museum, in Dearborn, Michigan.
• $1,000,000 for the Oswego, New York pedestrian waterfront walkway (right).
• $400,000 for Uptown Jogging, Bicycle, Trolley Trail, Columbus, Georgia
• $3,000,000 for dust control mitigation on rural roads in Arkansas. [Correction 8/23/05 -- Alaska, not Arkansas]
• $850,000 for the Red River National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Louisiana.
• $5,000,000 for the Grant Tower Reconfiguration in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Sen McCain also details how "earmarks" -- instructions on how money is to be spent on specific projects -- have exploded in the last 20 or so years:

1982: 10 earmarks costing $386 million

1987: 152 earmarks costing $1.4 billion

1991: 538 earmarks costing $6 billion

2000: 1,850 earmarks costing $9 billion

2005: 6,300 earmarked costing $20 billion

There's plenty in the highway bill to make taxpayers feel like roadkill. (WTVM, Sen John McCain Press Release)