A press release went out today from Citizens Against Government Waste and it mentioned several members of Congress from Florida.  Including Suzanne Kosmas of Orlando.  Below is the press release ——–

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released its preliminary analysis of the House version of the fiscal year 2010 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.  There are 272 projects costing taxpayers $156 million.  This represents a 10.1 increase in projects and a 15.6 increase in spending from fiscal year 2009.

As usual, appropriators loaded the bill with pork.  House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) requested seven projects worth $7,193,000, while Ranking Member Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) requested five projects totaling $2,750,000.  Here are some outrageous examples of wasteful spending that members of the House added to the bill:

• $500,000 by House appropriator C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) and Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and John Sarbanes (D-Md.) for the Star Spangled Banner National Historic Trail in Maryland.  According to a press release on Rep. Sarbanes’ website, “the trail commemorates some of the most important events of the War of 1812 including the battle at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem.”  Eliminating the deficit would be much more patriotic.

• $500,000 by House appropriator Bill Young (R-Fla.) and Reps. Ron Klein (D-Fla.), Suzanne Kosmas (D-Fla.), Kendrick B. Meek (D-Fla.), Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), and John Mica (R-Fla.) for the Florida National Scenic Trail.  The trail runs from Gulf Islands National Seashore near Pensacola to Big Cypress National Preserve west of Miami.  The funds will be used to acquire approximately 267 miles of gaps in the trail, according to Rep. Wexler’s website.

• $150,000 by House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee member Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) for the restoration of Cotrill’s Opera House in Thomas.  The fat lady is singing and it is for the end of fiscal sanity.

• $150,000 by House appropriator Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) to help restore Tarrytown Music Hall.  In the past, Tarrytown has received $20,000 from the Junior League of Westchester-on-Hudson, as well as other contributions ranging from $1,000 to $40,000 from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the Rotary Club of Tarrytown, and several individuals, all for a new air conditioning system.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.

It seems as though everyone right now is having hard times.  Family’s are scraping by and stopping non-essential spending.  Think about this. About two years ago if you went out to eat the restaurants were packed.   People had to wait at least 20-45 minutes for a seat.  I can’t say that is so anymore.

It does seem that the Government Cities, County, and State still have money to spend.  Our own Polk County Board of County Commissioners is handing out money faster than you can say Lake Weohyakapka.  Let’s recap some of the spending in just the past few months.

• $1 Million to Florida Southern College for a welcome center (for tourist to come look at buildings)
• $1 Million to USF Polytechnic, Money to be used as seed money
• $200,000 for an Off-Road park, Even though the market already determined a need and a private enterprise opened in Lake Wales.
• $1.8 Million Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 60 in Bartow to connect Fort Fraiser trail

Why just these four projects? Easy, these are just the ones that are handy and I know of that I think are frivolous waste.  Don’t get me wrong I think education is important. However the county is facing severe budget issues and they are not taking proactive actions to avoid the consequences.

Right now we need our commissioners to be fiscally responsible.  Not to be “YES” men to everything that comes across the agenda.  The county is facing issues such as laying off employees, forcing them to take furloughs, and pay cuts.

One item that Michael Herr (General Manager) introduced was pay cuts for employees making $100K or more.   No word yet if he will include himself in that pay cut.  You see in just 6 years the Polk County budget has went from $557 Million to $1.7 Billion.  Herr gets paid representative to the budget that he oversees.  So the larger the budget the more he makes.  So he really has no incentive to save county taxpayers money.

I know that persons at The Ledger may twist these words out of context so let me be a straight shooter with you.  I am not against education, recreation or anything else covered in this post.  However I am against WASTEFUL SPENDING & EVER EXPANDING GOVERNMENT!

Thank You.
Heath Whiteaker