Pork Report Focus is on V-W, EPB—And Others

CHATTANOOGA, TN. (WDEF-TV) – Is anybody keeping an eye on government waste, fraud, and abuse in Tennessee?
The Nashville-based Beacon Center says it does, and today it came out with its annual Pork Report.
It says millions of dollars in taxpayer money has been misused—including some in the Chattanooga area.

For ten years now the think tank known as the Beacon center has been putting out a list of what it feels is mismanagement of tax-payer money. On its website It bills itself as an independent, nonprofit, and nonpartisan research organization.

JUSTIN OWEN, CEO, THE BEACON CENTER "This past year,as the Pork Report shows, state and local government have squandered 763 million dollars in tax payer money."

The Pork Report takes aim at such varied subjects as the 46-thousand dollars spent by the state for a new logo—the one with the giant TN in a box.

The also report questions the 235 million dollars in state and local incentives Volkswagen got to expand.

MAYOR JIM COPPINGER, HAMILTION COUNTY "With this expansion, we’re expecting another 9800 additional jobs, so its not just about Volkswagen. I mean, you’re investing in a Volkswagen infrastructure or whatever…those aren’t pork projects…those are real projects with real economic impact."

The editors also maintain that city-owned EPB’s move to provide the one-gig internet service should have been done without 111-million dollars in federal funding.

JOHN PLESS, EPB SPOKESMAN "EPB fiber optics generates about 131-million dollars a year in revenue. Of that. about 31 of that revenue goes back to the electric system to pay for the use of that fiber optics grid. So essentially what that does is the fiber optics business support the electric business."

Beacon Center CEO Justin Owen told us the question is who’s paying the money.

JUSTIN OWEN, CEO., THE BEACON CENTER "No one asks what could the people we took those tax dollars from..what would they do with the money?

Owen says The Beacon Center is just trying to keep taxpayers informed about the money wasted every year.
No part of the state was spared in the report.
It takes Brownsville to task for spending money promoting the nearby birthplace of Tina Turner, who now lives in Switzerland.