by James Armstrong

I’m going to try very hard not to resort to potty mouth talk during this piece.

Texans take pride in saying that everything is bigger here, and true to form our state government has spent a lot of money on expanding and maintaining rest stops, and all the toilets that go with them.

On Jan. 31, Gordon Dickson of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram filed a must-read story concerning transportation enhancement funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“By federal law, states must spend 10 percent of transportation formula funds on enhancements – which can include everything from hike-and-bike trails to historic preservation,” Dickson wrote. “Texas has chosen to spend a good chunk of its enhancement dollars on rest areas, which enhance highway safety by reducing the number of drowsy drivers on the road.”

Sounds acceptable; every driver deserves a good rest area. One stop north of Austin, however, might take the comforts of the road to a new extreme. The new Salado, Texas rest stop cost $10 million and comes fully equipped with wi-fi internet, an emergency shelter for severe weather and a camera security system.

The Salado rest area might seem excessive, but is actually one decent example of money being spent on something related to transportation.

At a time when toll roads are being built across Texas and one year after infrastructure improvements were a rallying cry for passing the federal “stimulus,” money is being siphoned off for projects that are nowhere close to being transportation-related.

A few of the expenditures hit close to home.

Some $16 million of state transportation enhancement funds were spent on restoring the historic battleship U.S.S. Texas, now a museum ship anchored in San Jacinto State Park. Like most kids I remember visiting the Texas, appreciating its place in history as the last of the dreadnought battleships and one that saw action at both Normandy and Iwo Jima.

But the Texas isn’t going anywhere, and its lack of motion takes it out of the transportation category. I love my state and I love my nation’s history, which I believe is becoming more underappreciated every day. However, I expect such a restoration to come from proper channels, not the kind of twist-and-turn funding that has made a mockery of American credit and help lead us into the budgetary mess we’re in.

Other projects Dickson mentions in his piece include $20.4 million to renovate 21 county courthouses, $2 million for a Houston fire museum, $455,000 to beautify the Texas State Cemetery and $150,000 for a tourist center in Lufkin.

The same article states that Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has pledged to review enhancement spending. Judging from LaHood’s record in Congress, though, taxpayers will be lucky if even one pork project gets grilled.

In the Club for Growth’s 2007 RePORK Card, reviewing roll call votes to strike down earmarks, LaHood was one of 24 Republicans to score a zero. Some of the projects LaHood voted to uphold included $200,000 for the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine at Orono, $400,000 for a grant to study the alternative uses of tobacco and last, but just as disreputable, $2 million for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York.

So listen very carefully next time you drive on your nearest interstate, that whirling sound is not the wind, that’s the sound of cash fluttering across the highway.

Full story:
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/1917199.html

Follow-up story:
http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1918323.html