When it comes to bringing home the bacon, "Citizens Against Government Waste [1]" says Congressman Zach Wamp knows how to get a few slices.
The watchdog group links Wamp to $35-million in pork barrel projects in the latest federal budget, many with ties to Chattanooga and Hamilton County. "That's ridiculous, those are all necessities those are things we really need and other people benefit by them, its not, there's no way its pork," says Chattanooga Councilman Manny Rico.
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He and other community leaders appear almost insulted by the inclusion of several projects, like nearly $2-million to expand the Chickamauga Chattanooga National Military Park. Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey says "we have a tradition in this country of preparing a place for our veterans to be laid to rest and their spouses and that's what that land acquisition is about, and it thats pork, so be it."
Also tagged as pork, $1,960,000 to relocate and reconstruct a taxiway at the Chattanooga Airport, $1,968,000 to develop Moccasin Bend, and over $1,600,000 for various economic development effort.
So what does it take to get listed in the Congressional Pig Book? In the case of Carta's new parking and bus terminal planned for the North Shore... only one chamber of Congress sought funding for it, the President didn't request it, and it only serves a local need. In all, there are seven criteria CAGW looks at. A project needs to satisfy only two of them.
[1]5 Kilowatt Fuel Cell UnitUTC earned two entries in the pig book. One for developing a fuel cell at The SimCenter to power a city block. The other to study why low-birth weight babies in Hamilton County cross race and economics. UTC spokesman Chuck Cantrell says "they're now looking at environmental factors and they seem to be finding heavy metals in the water supply from the environment might be the cause of that low birth weight."
Here's a list of the 15 projects tied to Chattanooga & Hamilton County:
- $3,500,000 - Fuel Cell demonstration at UTC SimCenter
- $1,968,800 - Moccasin Bend construction
- $1,960,000 - Chattanooga Airport taxiway relocation
- $1,791,608 - Chickamauga/Chattanooga National Park land acquisition
- $1,055,000 - Chickamauga Lock
- $828,000 - Hamilton County, training activities for manufacturing
- $738,000 - Chattanooga Air Tanker Base construction (forestry planes to dump water on wildfires)
- $634,500 - Chattanooga Police Department (community policing technology)
- $600,000 - The Enterprise Center (small business administration)
- $588,000 - CARTA North Shore Parking & Terminal facility
- $390,000 - UTC study of low birth weight babies
- $282,000 - TN Meth Task Force, Chattanooga
- $200,000 - Center for Entrepreneurial Growth (business incubator)
- $150,400 - Hamilton County Drug Court
- $98,000 - Center for Entrepreneurial Growth (building construction for center)
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