The $500,000 earmark allocated to the Sparta Teapot Museum made it a poster child for wasteful spending in Washington. Turns out this "vital" project has just been scaled back after not being able to raise enough money to pay for the proposed 30,000 square foot museum.

Which leads us to ask: If the museum cannot raise money from private sources why should taxpayers be on the hook? Americans for Prosperity Foundation's Ending Earmarks Express visited the Sparta Teapot Museum in June 2006.

From the Winston Salem Journal:

Organizers of the Sparta Teapot Museum are scaling back their plans over financial concerns. The museum was intended to bring tourism money to the small town near the Blue Ridge Parkway. But its board of directors cut the project from $14 million to about $6 million, which the town manager said could jeopardize an agreement to display more than 7,000 eclectic teapots collected by Sonny Kamm, a Los Angeles millionaire. Museum officials had raised $4.2 million by summer, including private donations and $1.1 million in public money, but couldn't raise enough private money to pay for a proposed 30,000-square-foot museum.

Currently, the museum occupies a small space in downtown Sparta and has a preview gallery of the teapot collection. Officials said they plan to display regional crafts if they lose the teapot collection. "Of course, our first plan was a wonderful dream. It was an absolute dream museum. The problem was we just couldn't afford our dream," ! said Sandy Carter Herndon, a member of the museum's board of directors.