Instapundit is reporting that “Rep. David Obey says that there’s not time to look at the 36,000 earmark requests in the House.” But the Porkbusters are offering to give them a hand:

Therefore, would like to personally volunteer my time to help you and your staff in evaluating this year’s earmark requests.

As you know, Internet technology has made research faster and easier than at any previous time in human history. By releasing your 36,000 earmark requests publicly, I and other taxpayers across the country could work together in a cooperative effort to determine which Members of Congress may have financial conflicts attached to their earmark requests, which local projects may be unworthy of federal funding and which may have value to the taxpayers.

Thank you for your consideration of this matter. I and millions of my fellow taxpayers across America stand ready to help you evaluate these 36,000 earmarks requests. After all, we are the ones who are paying for these requested projects — the least we can do is help you evaluate their merit.

You can sign up to help out here…I did.

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Did Perdue cook the books before vetoing the $142 million tax break?:

The state’s income tax take skyrocketed in May, sparking accusations from lawmakers that Gov. Sonny Perdue cooked the books a month earlier to justify his veto of a property tax cut that he never supported.

The May collections were released Friday, four days after House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) sent the Department of Revenue a letter saying he was hearing from taxpayers that income tax checks sent to the state in April weren’t deposited for several weeks.
[…]
News of the poor tax collections for April came on the same day the governor vetoed the $142 million property tax cut approved by lawmakers. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in May or June,” Perdue said at the time. ” I think it’s prudent at this time to be fiscally conservative.”

The state’s financial picture improved dramatically last month. Income tax collections were up 45.4 percent over the previous May, the Department of Revenue reported Friday.

“There is no question they manipulated the numbers in April to justify the veto,” House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin) said Friday. “People sent in their checks by April 17 and all indications are they held some checks.”

Collections of all types of taxes jumped 28 percent, or $466 million in May. For the fiscal year, which ends this month, collections are up 7.6 percent, or $1.1 billion.

My friend, State Rep. Jill Chambers, had stickers that were passed around at the state GOP convention that say, “Real Republicans cut taxes.” Which is kind of funny. There are some members of the State House that truly wanted to see that tax cut come to fruition. Rep. Chambers is in that group, as is Rep. Davis. But it was leadership wanting to get back at Perdue. The taxpayers would have been the beneficiaries of it…but it wasn’t out of principle…much like Perdue’s vetoes out of the budget.

Despite that the legislature needs to over-ride Perdue’s veto as soon as it gets back into session next year simply because it was promised to the taxpayers.

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Here is the PDF of the final 2008 budget

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