Pork barrel is a symbol for the appropriation of government spending for local projects primarily to bring money to a specific representative’s district.There is nothing fair or appropriate about pork barrel; it is a mechanism used by the party in power to aggrandize their overall position.
In the twilight days of a the Michigan Republicans’ Lame Duck session in late 2018, Gov. Snyder wanted to get certain bills passed and he turned to using money for pork barrel projects to facilitate his goal. Snyder started trading dollars for legislators’ votes. Those negotiations took place during a flurry of activity four days before Christmas in and ultimately 113 million dollars worth of pork barrel projects were funded and Snyder got his bills passed.
In the Bridge article, the writer makes it clear that this type of horse trading was a first for Gov. Snyder. He liked being called the non-politician governor – more nerdy businessman type than wheeler dealer. However to get some environmental clean up bills passed (which by the way was an excellent plan and worked) he resorted to trading dollars for votes for these bills.
The way this works is that the majority party, in this case the Republicans, doled out the money to primarily Republican dominated districts. For example, Detroit, Flint and Saginaw combined received a grand total of 3.5 million dollars. While Grand Rapids/Kent County’s total take for projects came to 21 million dollars.
And lo and behold Leelanau County and Traverse City landed over 5 million dollars in projects. See the Record Eagle article in the link below which discusses this huge haul of tax dollars of which 2 million will go for the Grand Traverse Bay waterfront’s Discovery Pier project. The rest of the money was allocated for the Grand Traverse County Downtown District Authority Civic Square, the Grand Traverse County Civic Center amphitheater and the Tart Trails.
Which districts are chosen depends on the persuasive skills of the majority party’s state senators and representatives and their influence with party leaders and the governor. The great news for northwest lower Michigan residents appears to be that these allocations will add to the quality of life for everyone as well as the tourists who visit the area. And it does not come as a surprise that the GOP particularly likes educational and downtown development projects which add huge economic value to an area.
However, it is a good guess that there were overlooked Dem projects which would have helped considerably more people overall and provided assistance where there was a greater need than the ones which were ultimately funded. For example, Detroit asked for money for water projects. The project was not funded. Pork barrel funds do not get reviewed. They do not have to show the greatest need nor cover more people. Pork barrel is used as an incentive to gain favors and to make a district’s lawmaker look more attractive to his/her constituents.
That’s the traditional way pork barrel works. Fair or not the residents of northwest lower Michigan have become lucky recipients of this tradition..
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Can we make lemonade out of political lemons? Writing daily since November 9th, 2016