Sunday, September 18, 2005

Pork Busting in Indiana

I'm going to try my hand at Pork Busting. Here's an explanation of this effort.

After reviewing the various potential pork projects in Indiana and, more specifically Allen County, I am registering the $8.8 million (#2346) to extend Maplecrest Avenue. They already extended it to I469 to the north and it stops at the river to the south, so what are they planning now and how does it relate to FEDERAL highways? Whatever the plan, either fund it locally or drop it.

I am very inclined to list the following items , but do not know enough about Indianapolis to make a call that this is true pork.

$12,280,000 (#2189) in the Federal Highway budget for Indianapolis Convention Center Redevelopment Project, which is $1 million more than the I69 Evansville to Indianapolis construction! This project includes street resurfacing, pedestrian walkways, streetscape improvement, signals, plaza improvements and pedestrian bridges.

$5,720,000 (#3531) for "downtown road improvements" - which downtown and what improvements? I don't think this is Indianapolis as there is a separate entry of $4,500,000 (#4155) for downtown road improvements in Indianapolis and ANOTHER entry for $6 million (#4182)for "downtown road improvements" in Indianapolis in addition to the over $12 million for the conventions center and $5 million (#4181) to remove the Market Street Ramp and streetscaping..

While we are reviewing pork earmarked for Indianapolis (which has fewer pigs than any other county in the state), let's look at bus facilities: $11, 704,000 for a downtown Indianapolis transit center plus a separate entry of $4,000,000 (#544) for the same item, $1,672,000 (#220) for IndySmart program (what is this?), $4,180,000 (#235) for Indy IvyTech multi-modal facility, $11,740,00 (#378) plus $836,000 (#417) for multi-modal at the Children's Museum. I smell almost $62 million of bacon here.

A drop in the bucket, but why does Fishers need Federal money to "construct multi-use pathways"?

Source

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