The Virginian-Pilot
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More than $25.4 million in federal money is headed to Hampton Roads for a variety of water and development projects, and $50 million more could be coming for the Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort.
The Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act for fiscal 2010 includes $2 million for the Chesapeake Bay oyster recovery program; $1.3 million to operate the locks and bridges along the Dismal Swamp Canal; $727,000 for a Virginia Beach hurricane protection project; and $460,000 for deepening Norfolk harbor and channels and to update the navigation and security plans to meet the demands of growing container traffic.
The act, signed into law by President Barack Obama, also includes $20 million for the Thomas Jefferson National Lab Accelerator Facility as it continues construction of the 12 GeV continuous electron-beam accelerator upgrade.
And ready for Obama’s signature is a spending bill for the Interior Department that includes $50 million for Chesapeake Bay restoration.
The House and Senate increased funding Thursday in the annual spending bill by $19 million, $15 million more than requested by the president. Obama issued an executive order in May directing federal agencies to develop a Bay restoration strategy.
This report contains information from The Associated Press.
Lauren King, (757) 446-2309, lauren.king@pilotonline.com
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priorities
All this money being dumped on feel good projects while our infrastructure crumbles and jobs are fleeing the area. This money could be better spent fixing roads, schools, tax credits for start up businesses, tax credits for new job hires ……you know, stimulating something besides government departments.
This is how the federal government works (regardless of which parties are in control). They dictate where tax dollars - derived from The People - are to be spent and how much is to be spent on those projects and services. It is called mandating and it strips all power from states and localities to address their most pressing problems.
If those programs, projects, and services are secondary to what the economy of your state needs, or is over funding special areas at the expense of necessary projects - then government at all levels is over taxing the people. When they can just throw money around like this then they have lost all sense of how the real world works. They have totally lost sight of what it is to balance the checkbook and live within a budget.
You're pointing your finger in the wrong direction.
This IS exactly how the federal government works because it's the way it's supposed to work. Let's be clear, though, because it's so easy to point fingers at the great unknown "they." "They" happen to be YOU, and the people YOU have elected to office as your representatives. If you spend much time in any government agency, you'll find quickly that federal workers have almost no say in things except to advise, recommend and, when authorized by legislation or presidential direction, carry plans out. Just about everything they do is driven by what "we the people" and our various interest groups have told them we want. I assure you, most government employers have far better things to do than sit around and think up ways to irritate taxpayers.
You also need to study the federal budget. The three things you mentioned specifically--roads, schools and economic development incentives--are traditionally local or state responsibilities that receive federal funding support. But the decisions are not federally driven. If you're unhappy about unfunded federal mandates, a very valid concern, then you need to talk to your congressional and senate representatives. They're the ones passing on
"Feel good" projects?
Hurricane protection? Deepening the Elizabeth River so more ships can access the NIT where thousands of our friends and neighbors work and which brings millions of dollars of revenue to the area? You must have been asleep for the past six months as Virginia got a lot of money in the first stimulus round for just the things you talk about -- infrastructure projects, school improvements and small business startup money. States could decide whether or not to accept the money and on what kinds of projects the money could be spent. Where would YOU find money to pay for infrastructure improvements in Virginia? Which essential state services should be cut or eliminated? Police and fire protection? Prisons? Education? You can talk about waste and inefficiency all you want, but state agencies are already underfunded and nibbling at "waste and inefficiency" around the edges is only chump change.