SHARE:
Earmarks: Bringing Home the Bacon
Florida lawmakers end-run the federal budgetary process to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on pet projects each year.
| State Rankings | ||
| Florida ranked fifth in the nation in the total amount of congressional earmarks received in 2008, with $477 million. On a per capita basis, however, at $26.14 per person, Florida ranks 41st. Alaska received more earmark money per capita than any other state — $506.34 per person. | ||
| Rank/State | Total Earmarks | |
| 1 | California | $929,217,800 |
| 2 | Texas | 649,242,180 |
| 3 | Pennsylvania | 523,033,080 |
| 4 | Mississippi | 511,478,000 |
| 5 | Florida | 477,044,050 |
| Rank/State | Earmarks Per Capita | |
| 1 | Alaska | $506.34 |
| 2 | Hawaii | 225.86 |
| 3 | West Virginia | 197.86 |
| 4 | Mississippi | 175.24 |
| 5 | North Dakota | 165.48 |
| 41 | Florida | 26.14 |
| Source: Taxpayers for Common Sense | ||
Politicians don’t distinguish between earmarks and other appropriations when touting the money they deliver to their districts, of course. In recent press releases, Sarasota Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan, for instance, hailed the more than $17 million he has already scored for local projects in the 2009 budget. Those dollars include plenty of earmarked goodies, like $7.6 million for a dredging project at Wares Creek to help reduce flooding in a Bradenton neighborhood, $1.6 million for a public safety center in Sarasota County and enhancements to the county’s 911 system and $1 million for a renewable/alternative energy center in Sarasota County. Buchanan also secured through earmarks $157,000 for a beach renourishment project at Lido Key, $200,000 for a voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) emergency notification system at Manatee Community College and $200,000 for a police cruiser in-car video system for Bradenton.
Earmarking has received heightened scrutiny after scandals involving federal lawmakers and now-incarcerated lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who famously referred to the Appropriations Committee as an earmark “favor factory.” Earlier this year, the U.S. Senate asked the Justice Department to investigate a 2005 earmark orchestrated by Alaska Rep. Don Young (R) for a $10-million study about building an I-75 interchange at Coconut Road in Naples that would have benefited one of Young’s campaign contributors, Florida developer Daniel Aronoff.
Congress added some sunshine to the earmarking process in 2007 when it adopted rules requiring that each spending bill be accompanied by a list of all earmarks. The rules also require disclosure of each earmark’s congressional sponsor, the name and address of the recipient and the intended location of the earmark. Taxpayers for Common Sense used the disclosures to compile a database with detailed information on all of Congress’ earmarks.
| Floridas Top Earmarkers (2008) | |||
| Lawmaker | Solo Earmarks | Earmarks with Other Lawmakers | Total |
| Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R) | $103,840,000 | $65,187,000 | $169,027,000 |
| Rep. Allen Boyd (D) | 36,871,000 | 46,293,500 | 83,164,500 |
| Sen. Bill Nelson (D) | 28,169,700 | $132,981,050 | $161,150,750 |
| Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R) | 11,008,800 | 26,983,500 | 37,992,300 |
| Sen. Mel Martinez (R) | 9,808,000 | 118,402,050 | 128,210,050 |
| Rep. Kathy Castor (D) | 9,015,800 | 10,836,000 | 19,851,800 |
| Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) | 7,308,000 | 10,594,100 | 17,902,100 |
| Rep. Adam Putnam (R) | 7,086,000 | 8,866,000 | 15,952,000 |
| Rep. John Mica (R) | 5,180,000 | 11,808,100 | 16,988,100 |
| Rep. Tim Mahoney* (D) | 5,102,400 | 15,776,200 | 20,878,600 |
| Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R) | 4,833,000 | 1,643,000 | 6,476,000 |
| Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R) | 4,707,600 | 13,085,000 | 17,792,600 |
| Rep. Vern Buchanan (R) | 4,420,000 | 10,665,500 | 15,085,500 |
| Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) | 4,355,000 | 19,305,000 | 23,660,000 |
| Rep. Corrine Brown (D) | 4,335,700 | 36,448,700 | 40,784,400 |
| Rep. Ric Keller* (R) | 4,299,000 | 4,813,100 | 9,112,100 |
| Rep. Ron Klein (D) | 3,935,500 | 9,490,500 | 13,426,000 |
| Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R) | 3,717,500 | 7,328,500 | 11,046,000 |
| Rep. Kendrick Meek (D) | 3,697,000 | 10,082,500 | 13,779,500 |
| Rep. Dave Weldon** (R) | 3,522,000 | 8,969,800 | 12,491,800 |
| Rep. Tom Feeney* (R) | 3,245,000 | 7,437,000 | 10,682,000 |
| Rep. Connie Mack (R) | 2,677,500 | 4,015,500 | 6,693,000 |
| Rep. Alcee Hastings (D) | 2,623,500 | 11,027,500 | 13,651,000 |
| Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R) | 2,366,000 | 2,893,500 | 5,259,500 |
| Rep. Robert Wexler (D) | 1,952,000 | 8,624,000 | 10,576,000 |
| Rep. Jeff Miller (R) | 1,743,000 | 11,946,500 | 13,689,500 |
| Rep. Cliff Stearns (R) | 1,631,000 | 33,249,100 | 34,880,100 |
| *Defeated in 2008 election **Retired in 2008 Source: Taxpayers for Common Sense |
|||
Next page: More charts on earmarks for Florida's colleges and universities.
