It looks like there won’t be much sunlight in how the State House works in its pork barrel projects:

Meeting with reporters recently, Majority Leader Jerry Keen said House GOP budget writers may decide to hold off considering proposed capital projects until the spending plan reaches a conference committee with the Senate, the last step before lawmakers adopt the budget.
[…]
The idea of waiting until the conference committee meets to take up capital projects is modeled after an approach the legislature already has begun taking with so-called “special projects,” the local grants lawmakers insert into the budget each year that critics deride as “pork” projects.

This year, the conference committee added $6.5 million in local grants to the budget during their final negotiations.

Keen, R-St. Simons Island, said the process worked well because those projects became associated with the full General Assembly rather than with the parochial interests of an individual legislator or legislative chamber.

“Projects that are good for Georgia should be good for Georgia,” he said. “They shouldn’t be labeled as ‘this person’s project’ or ‘this body’s project.’”

Rep. John Heard, R-Lawrenceville, chairman of the House budget subcommittee on special projects, said he likes the idea of expanding the concept, as long as capital projects receive the same vetting that his panel gave to the local grants individual House members requested.

As Chris Farris notes, this is the exact same way Democrats in the United States Congress have been adding their pork projects, a move that has been severely criticized by bloggers and fiscally conservative political commentators.

It didn’t take long for Georgia Republicans to let the power get to their heads.

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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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Sonny Perdue has been wielding his pen over the last few days:

Gov. Sonny Perdue used his veto pen Wednesday to slash about $141 million in spending and kill 41 bills passed during the legislative session.

Perdue signed the $20.2 billion budget for fiscal 2008, which begins July 1, into law. It includes 3 percent cost-of-living raises for about 200,000 teachers and state workers, $40 million for land conservation and $19 million for the governor’s fishing tourism program called “Go Fish Georgia.”

But before doing that, he cut out $123 million in construction debt and $18 million in local projects.

Among the veto victims was the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in Augusta, a pet project of House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans). The state has spent about $7 million on the project during the past decade, but a Hall of Fame was never built.

Today was the last day for the Governor to veto any legislation. In Georgia when if the Governor fails to veto a bill within 40 days of legislature’s adjournment, it automatically becomes law. There is no pocket veto in Georgia.

While I like the idea of $141 million in vetoed spending, it didn’t come about honestly. It came about because Sonny Perdue had his feelings hurt when the House overrode his veto and when they refused to work out a compromise. It would have been nice if Perdue would actually do something out of principle for once…just once.

I hear that Perdue has also vetoed HB 91.

[UPDATE] Farris has blasted Perdue on the HB 91 veto over at Peach Pundit.

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Here is something from the Savannah Morning News detailing some of the pork projects for Southeast Georgia:

In the end, state budget-writers even found money for Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman.

The Union “March to the Sea” soon could be commemorated with a special trail, one of four that the General Assembly funded to the tune of $200,000 total in the final draft of the spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1, which passed last week.

That’ll set well with the rednecks here in Georgia that are still fighting the Civil War. I will admit that I do share the negative feelings about Sherman. For all intents and purposes, he was a terrorist, but no different from Southern slave owners. But that is a debate for another time.
Continue Reading »

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The AJC is addressing some of the pork found in the FY 2008 budget, which was passed late Sunday night, and only sat for an hour before legislators voted on it:

Late Friday night, lawmakers approved a fiscal 2008 budget that included several million dollars for projects ranging from local museums to streetscapes, a party, baseball facilities, locker rooms and even a fresh coat of paint for a water tower. The projects were made public only a few hours before the Legislature adjourned.

As the session wound down last week, Gov. Sonny Perdue vetoed the current year’s budget, saying too much was left out when legislators approved a $142 million property tax break. That will lead to a special session in coming weeks.

Overshadowed by the veto was the fact that legislators used next year’s much larger 2008 budget to send millions home to local communities — the type of “pork barrel” spending many GOP leaders criticized when Democrats ran the statehouse.

Continue Reading »

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The State Senate disappoints:

A key Senate committee Monday approved a spending plan for next year that includes $45 million for land preservation and all $19 million Gov. Sonny Perdue wanted for fishing tourism.

The full Senate is expected to vote on the $20.2 billion spending plan today, and Senate and House negotiators will then work to reach agreement on the budget before the session is scheduled to end Friday.

As expected, the Senate stripped or slashed many of the pet projects inserted into the budget by the House and replaced them with its own projects. The winners in that process were southeast Georgia lawmakers who help run the Senate and who funneled more money to their region. The loser was the Augusta area, home to House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans), who saw several of his projects cut.

The Senate gave Perdue more of what he wanted than the House had. For instance, the governor got all the money he requested for “Go Fish Georgia,” a fishing tourism program that includes new boat ramps and a fish hatchery. The governor got nearly all of the $50 million he requested for land preservation. The House had approved no money for the program.

Many of us agreed with the Senate on the 2007 amended budget, but it seems that their version of the 2008 budget is no better. At least the House was honest during the budget battle. However, the Senate’s actions were expected.

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We’d like to acknowledge the nine Representatives that voted for the amendment to cut $5 million designated to “Go Fish.”

On the Lakly Amendment

We’d also like to acknowledge and thank the seven Representatives that voted against the pork laden FY 2008 budget.

On passage of HB 95 (FY 2008 budget)

We had heard rumors that as many as twelve Republicans were going to break against leadership and vote against the budget. It’s clear that leadership strong armed members to vote their way. Several sources at the capitol told us that for the first time since they can recall, leadership whipped the budget within their own caucus to make sure they had the votes for passage.

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The House Budget Office has made the FY 2008 budget available for viewing. You can check it out here.

The budget is at $20.2 billion and the document is 172 pages long.

We’ll be going through it over the next couple days.

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The State House Appropriations Committee has passed the budget for 2008:

The $20.2 billion spending plan for fiscal 2008, which begins July 1, also includes dozens of pet projects for lawmakers and $6 million for unspecified grants that won’t be made public until just before the end of the 2007 session.

The House Appropriations Committee backed the budget this morning, and the full House will consider it Friday. Lawmakers hope to end the 2007 session next Friday.

The spending plan gives Gov. Sonny Perdue much, although not all, of what he requested. It includes $18 million of the $19 million he wanted for “Go Fish Georgia,” the state’s effort to promote fishing tourism. However, it doesn’t include any money for land preservation, another of Perdue’s priorities.

[…]

House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans), is from the Augusta area, and that East Georgia city had a good haul in the House budget. The Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, located in Augusta, would get $550,000 for operations and a feasibility study on its future. Another $2.8 million would go to expand the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.

Gainesville, home of Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Carl Rogers (R-Gainesville), would get $2 million for a parking deck.

Paulding County, home of House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram), would get $1.5 million for a new library.

While we scored a huge victory earlier in the week, we have a battle on our hands now and this one is going to be tough.

I’ll post a copy of the 2008 budget as soon as it is available.

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Here is a list of my favorite pork projects from the State House version of the FY 2007 supplemental budget. Many of these projects should be funded solely by private entities and not by government, like $75,000 to Georgia Voyager magazine or $1 million for the Tour de Georgia.

- $24,064 for the relocation and continuation of the Anne Frank in the World exhibit and for the operational costs of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust.
- $25,000 for operations to the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.
- $25,000 for operations to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
- $50,000 for the Civil War Heritage Trails project.
- $50,000 for the Silver Haired Legislature.
- $75,000 for Georgia Voyager magazine.
- $100,000 for Warner Robins Air Force Base museum.
- $125,000 for the Historic Chattahoochee Commission.
- $250,000 for programming and design development for replacements of existing interiors within common areas, electrical, HVAC and water intrusion within the Floyd Building.
- $300,000 for operations to the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.
- $350,000 for Zoo Atlanta’s proposed new animal hospital.
- $429,390 for House member’s per diem.
- $1,000,000 for the Tour de Georgia.
- $5,000,000 for Civil War commemoration preparation and Resaca Battlefield development.
- $5,000,000 for the National Infantry Museum project.
- $5,734,000 for the demolition of the State Archives building.
- $19,000,000 for “Go Fish Georgia.”
- $46,550,000 for the West Point Development Authority for the Kia project development grant and purchase of a rail spur to complete site development.
- $50,000,000 for grant funds to acquire lands for the preservation and protection of Georgia’s critical and essential watersheds and wildlife habitats within the Governor’s Land Conservation program.

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