While I’ve been home sick today, I’ve been working on the highway pages. As a result, I’ve been looking through HR3 and the “high priority” allocations it makes. You can find a list from before it went to committee here; the list amended by the committee can be found here. Be prepared: these are large lists: 201 pages, over 3500 projects, and over $5,900,000,000 of your tax dollars being spent.
Peruse these lists. Do you want to see the ones that affect just California? There are over 400. You can find just the California ones, before committee, here.
Some are useful. Some are pure pork.
Want examples?
#3637: $92,000,000 for planning design and construction to widen SR in Kern County between SLO county line and I-5.
#518 Construct pedestrian enhancements on Broadway in Los Angeles $2,500,000
#1696 Reconstruction of The Strand in the City of Manhattan Beach to improve beach access and accommodate increased pedestrian traffic $2,000,000
#1883 Planning for Orange Line Mag Lev from downtown Los Angeles to central Orange County 350,000
#1601 Transportation enhancements to Children Museum of Los Angeles 1,200,000
Actually, I’m not knocking these projects. Some of the are really useful:
#570 I-5 HOV improvements from Route 134 to Route 170 500,000
#1793 Reconfigure intersection at Highways 152 and 156 in Santa Clara County 13,900,000
#1653 Engineering, right of way and construction of HO V lanes on I- 580 in the Livermore Valley, Caflfornia 5,000,000
#216 Construction of Cross Valley Connector between 1-5 and SR 14 5,000,000
The 405 HOV lane (I can’t find the number).
Take a look. Be an informed citizen. This bill (which should be signed soon by President Bush) will affect you.
