April 28, 2024
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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.
Amy Keller | 12/1/2008
A Sampler
Florida lawmakers slip earmark dollars into the federal budget for everything from museums to ferry boats:
- The Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg received $287,000 for exhibits and programming. The earmark was sponsored by Reps. Bill Young (R) and Robert Wexler (D) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D).
- Thanks to Rep. Ron Klein (D), the South Florida Science Museum in West Palm Beach received $310,000 for “educational and outreach” programs.
- The Young At Art Children’s Museum in Davie received $167,000 for a permanent exhibit called the Global Village Project, where kids make passports and create music and learn about different cultures. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) sponsored the earmark.
- With help from Rep. Vern Buchanan (R), Mote Marine Laboratories in Sarasota received more than $2.5 million in federal earmark money in 2008, including $1.5 million for migratory shark research. The research center spent $60,000 on federal lobbying in 2007.
- Rep. Allen Boyd (D) secured $95,000 for a prescription assistance program in Gadsden County. The program will improve access to medicines for the county’s 46,000 residents, 20% of whom live below the poverty line. The county paid two D.C.-based lobbying firms $80,000 in 2007.
- The St. Johns River Ferry, which crosses the St. Johns River and connects Fort George Island to Mayport, received $490,000 to replace its aging backup boat. Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R) sponsored the earmark.
- This year, the Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando received $192,000 for “facilities and equipment” thanks to Rep. Ric Keller (R).
