Flashback: Kent Conrad Diverts Transportation Funding To Pork Project
With the nation still reeling from the bridge collapse in Minneapolis the political finger-pointing has started, most notably with a large number of people on the political left claiming that America’s highways and bridges are going unmaintained because of tax cuts. But this is patently false. This country appropriates more than enough money for infrastructure maintenance. The problem is that pandering, money-grubbing politicians keep grabbing it and appropriating it for other things.
For instance, back on the old Taking Back North Dakota site The Whistler posted a story about Kent Conrad taking two million dollars out of North Dakota’s transportation appropriation and using it to build a pork project for Bobcat.
“City and state officials touted the construction of the Northern Plains Commerce Centre as a bold move for Bismarck-Mandan that will bring new jobs by making the community a global hub for trade.
Dozens of dignitaries, business people and others made their way to an empty field north of the Bismarck Airport for a ceremonial groundbreaking for the facility, and for a $9.5 million expansion Bobcat is making in conjunction with the NPCC.
Bobcat, which will be one of the first beneficiaries of the transloading facility, will initially create 100 new jobs and possibly more in the future, according to Richard Pedtke, president of Bobcat. . . .
“Bismarck Mayor John Warford said the city is paying for the NPCC with $2 million from the Department of Transportation that Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. requested in the recently passed transportation bill, $1 million from the Economic Development Administration. The state Department of Transportation also is contributing $1.7 million.”
This particular misappropriation is just the tip of the iceberg, I think, when it comes to politicians (North Dakota’s included) raiding transportation bills to fund other, not-so-transportation-related pet projects. Conrad’s record, for instance, includes the following:
- Lewis and Clark Legacy Trails $2 million
- Lewis and Clark Path at Washburn $675,000
- A trail linking the Washburn Interpretive Center with Fort Mandan Fort Totten Bike Trail $520,000
- A biking and walking trail on the Spirit Lake Reservation linking the health center, the Four Winds School and a housing development
That’s a few million dollars, all from just one transportation bill. There’s likely millions upon millions more out there.
Now we can debate about the necessity of these pet projects, and whether or not they should receive federal funds, but shouldn’t we all agree that transportation funding should go to infrastructure? And not be available to the sticky fingers of people like Kent Conrad who would use it for pork projects?
