Earmarks supply federal funds to local projects
Earmarks supply federal funds to local projects
Written by Mark Collins Thursday, 17 April 2008
The City of Cedar Park has been able to upgrade Whitestone Boulevard thanks to federal funding provided through earmarks.
“An earmark is member-directed initiative spending,” U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-District 31, said. “It means that the [congressional] member and his district can recommend targeting a certain amount of spending for a certain project.”
Whitestone Boulevard
For Cedar Park, that certain project has been Whitestone Boulevard (RM 1431).
In the past four years, the city has received $2 million in federal funding earmarked for Whitestone improvements, which includes the $500,000 check used for roadway design presented by Rep. Carter in February.
There are already 20,000 to 30,000 vehicle trips per day on Whitestone Boulevard, a number that is expected to rise to 50,000 by 2010. With that in mind, the City of Cedar Park has again recognized two more portions of Whitestone Boulevard in need of upgrades.
Priority One calls for the widening of the road from four lanes to a divided six lane highway from Toll 183A to CR 185. Priority Two would add a center turn lane and acceleration/deceleration lanes to the stretch of Whitestone Boulevard between Parmer Lane and Sam Bass Road.
“Our transportation corridors have to be improved in order to secure the quality and safety of our roadways,” Chamber of Commerce Board Director David Neely said. “We’ve got to make sure we maintain the safety for those who travel on our roads.”
The two projects will cost an estimated $11 million, of which $9.72 million has been requested in federal funds. The delegation may not receive the full amount, but is required to make the city’s needs clear.
“The money we got [in February] from Carter was for Priority One,” councilman Matt Powell said. “We were certainly emboldened by that and excited that the message we carried to D.C. was received.”
Washington D.C.
Funds have been acquired in recent years thanks in part to the annual trip to Washington D.C. made by city officials and members of the chamber of commerce to meet with state congressional representatives to request appropriated funds.
“It’s a given in the chamber business that we try to help our cities with all kinds of issues that they have,” Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce President Harold Dean said. “To go to Washington is one means of trying to help the city get some extra funding for local roads and projects that are going on.”
Dean visited Washington in 2001 with a group composed of regional chambers of commerce members. After two years of not receiving any federal money, the Cedar Park delegation decided to begin traveling independently.
“It was good to go and support the efforts of the group and be a part of it,” Dean said. “Locally we just weren’t receiving anything back, so we decided to go on our own and ask for our own needs.”
In February, Dean, Neely, City Manager Brenda Eivens and Council Members Powell and Mitch Fuller traveled to Washington D.C. for three days to request nearly $10 million in earmarked funds.
AT&T sponsored the chamber members’ travel expenses and the city officials were covered by the city travel budget.
“It’s a whole different thing to go there as a tourist than to go there with a mission and a purpose,” Powell said. “Not a lot of people get to do that, and when you do, that town takes on a whole different meaning.”
The group met with transportation aides for Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, and with Rep. Carter himself. The presentation involved an overview of Cedar Park, the projects and why the funding was necessary.
“When we went in 2007, we went to the senators and the congressman saying there is a hospital that is going to open here soon, there is a shopping center that is going to open,” Powell said. “This year, we were there saying, ‘We’re open.’”
Funding requests were due by the end of February with committees beginning to convene in March. There is no timetable for when the city will know if its bid was successful.
“There is something about going to Washington and showing them that courtesy of coming to see them where they are. It communicates something that’s hard to define, about the magnitude of the importance of the project,” Powell said. “The dollars are starting to come in and with any luck we should be able to bring in some more.”
Good and bad earmarks
Not all earmarks are good. Washington watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste recently included Sens. Cornyn and Hutchison along with Rep. Carter in its 2008 Congressional Pig Book, a listing of earmarked funds the organization felt were inappropriate.
“Williamson County is one of the largest growing counties in the country. Without federal funds, our roads cannot keep up with our rapidly growing population. A new state of the art hospital has been built on this current four-lane road and additional lanes are critical to keep drivers and emergency vehicles safe,” Rep. Carter said. “This is a safety concern for our district. It certainly isn’t pork.”
Perhaps the most infamous example of earmark spending is Alaska’s “bridge to nowhere.” Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens championed the project through congress in 2006, procuring more than $200 million in earmarked funds for a $398 million bridge that would serve 50 residents.
The earmark was dropped in 2007 under mounting political pressure.
“I said to the people in my office, ‘Look, whatever we ask for, if it’s not of such a nature that I would be proud to put it on the front of every newspaper in America, then don’t ask for it,’” Rep. Carter said. “That’s been my policy since day one, and it plays well.”
Good earmarks are appropriated funds that go to projects in smaller municipalities that may otherwise be overlooked. In addition to earmarking funds for Whitestone Boulevard, Rep. Carter has helped acquire funding for the Round Rock Higher Education Center.
Earmarks do not come from a separate fund, they are simply tabbed dollars in the Texas Department of Transportation’s budget that would otherwise be spent as TxDOT saw fit.
“If we end earmarks, it doesn’t mean we end the spending of that money,” Rep. Carter said. “It only means that we end the local input by the local members for the spending of that money.”
In Washington, Rep. Carter is involved in a movement to stem earmarks and make the process more transparent.
“If the process can’t be worked out then let’s abolish the process and study it,” Rep. Carter said. “Let’s work it all out so that the American public can feel comfortable with the process.”
How an earmark originates
- A municipality recognizes projects that would benefit from federal funding. The projects are voted on by city council and the priorities are set.
- A presentation is made to the congressman and his staff. Appropriation forms are turned in and the request is formally filed.
- The congressman submits a written request to the appropriate congressional subcommittee requesting the group’s support. The congressman’s requests will bear his name on the newly formed bill.
- Subcommittees meet throughout the year and work on the bill, which now has earmark requests attached to it. Earmark requests are discussed while the bill is being constructed, and can be granted or denied.
- The bill must be approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate and then it moves onto the conference phase.
- In the conference phase members from both chambers work to make the bill satisfactory to both parties. The conference has been a source of controversy, because congressmen are allowed to “airdrop” earmarks into a bill during this stage without attaching a name to the request.
- The president signs the bill and funds are allocated to the proper recipients.
2008 Earmark Request Packet
Before the delegation team traveled to Washington D.C., they prepared a presentation to help familiarize the congressman and senators with Cedar Park and its projects. Here is what it includes:
- Introduction - The introduction includes a welcome letter from Mayor Bob Lemon and a DVD of the top ten reasons why residents love Cedar Park. The most important aspect of this section is the introduction to the two projects for which funds were requested.
- Appropriation Forms - Necessary forms that relay cost, contact information and other information. Includes a letter from Cedar Park Regional Medical Center CEO Dr. David Klein expressing the community’s need for assistance.
- Commerical Snapshot - A look at the city’s infrastructure, economy, demographics and pattern of growth. Stresses the community aspect of Cedar Park, which includes events like the Heritage Festival and parks and recreation. Mentions recent accolades from Forbes and Family Circle magazines.
- Economic Development - Displays the economic growth in Cedar Park and the need for transportation to serve new developments like 1890 Ranch and Cedar Park Regional Medical Center.
- Maps - A collection of maps that includes Cedar Park’s comprehensive plan, a roadway map and the planning and zoning map.
Whitestone Boulevard improvement plans
- Priority ONE
- Section: Toll 183A to CR 185
- Distance: .65 mile
- Total Project Cost: $8.2 million
- Federal Funding Requested: $7.25 million
- Description: Expand Whitestone Boulevard to six lanes (three in each direction) with a raised center median and designated turn lanes at major intersections and business entrances.
- Priority TWO
- Section: East of Parmer Lane to west of Sam Bass Road
- Distance: .57 mile
- Total Project Cost: $2.8 million
- Federal Funding Requested: $2.47 million
- Description: Widen road to add dual center left turn lanes and acceleration/deceleration lanes to accommodate planned water park.
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