286 billion dollars toward shitty bridges in alaska

I'm thinking about proposing to the documentary filmmaker on this project.... Chewbacca-fuckin'-absurd doesn't even start to put this in perspective. Power, money. Those make the world go 'round. It's all an illusion.... the prestige, the royalty, whatever. We all crawled out of the same cosmic goo. -AWD

Posted on Mon, Aug. 08, 2005

STATE GETS MILLIONS VIA CONGRESSMAN

Politician paves way for roads in Alaska

By MATT STEARNS

The (Kansas City) Star’s Washington correspondent

WASHINGTON –– You probably never heard of Don Young. But Don Young is mighty thankful for your tax dollars. He just took hundreds of millions of them home to Alaska.

He’ll build two bridges derided by critics as “bridges to nowhere.” One will be named, by law, “Don Young’s Way.” Plus, the state ranked 47th in population will get miles and miles of new roads.

Oh, by the way, the law itself is named after Young’s wife, Lu.

So: Who is Don Young, and how does he get away with it?

Well, when it comes to highways, there are civil engineers and then there are political engineers.

Young is Alaska’s sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In office since 1973, he is described in The Almanac of American Politics as “a hot-tempered, salty-tongued true believer” whom one crosses at one’s own peril.

He also is the powerful chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which wrote the House version of the $286.5 billion federal transportation bill that Congress passed last week before recess.

In the nearly 2,000-page bill, Young, like virtually every other member of Congress, tucked away a bunch of money earmarked for specific home-state projects. Alaska wound up with $941 million in projects. Only three states had more.

Plus, Alaska will receive an average of $420 million per year in highway funds, ranking it first per capita among states in transportation spending, about $3,206 for every man, woman and moose in the state.

How does that compare? Missouri will get more, $862 million a year, but it comes out to about $750 per capita. And Kansas? $383 million and about $700 a head.

For every dollar Alaska pays in gasoline taxes, it will get $5.26 back in federal transportation spending, a better rate of return than any other state. By comparison, Missouri will get about 98 cents back on every dollar it pays in gas taxes, with 99 cents for Kansas.

Among the $941 million in Alaskan projects is funding for two bridges championed by Young. A two-mile-long bridge from Anchorage to a sparsely populated region across part of Cook Inlet, will get $229 million to begin construction. This bridge will be known as “Don Young’s Way.”

Young told the Anchorage Daily News that the state’s senior senator, Ted Stevens, is the one who put the naming language into the bill.

“I certainly wasn’t going to turn it down,” Young told the paper.

The bridge’s total cost is estimated at $400 million to $600 million, according to the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority. Critics contend it will cost twice as much.

Proponents said the bridge would spur development and growth for Anchorage, home to about half of Alaska’s population of about 650,000.

The toll authority plans to release projected usage information on the bridge in November.

“That’s going to be a sweet bridge that six people a day use,” scoffed one Washington lobbyist who did not want to be quoted by name because Young is hosting a fund-raiser in Alaska soon. (You don’t dog the chairman if you want to keep working with him.)

The second project, for $223 million, is for a bridge connecting Ketchikan, population 14,000, to an island that has the city’s airport. Currently, a ferry takes folks between Ketchikan and the Gravina Island airport, which offers seven flights a day on one airline.

“It’s probably the quickest airport commute in the universe,” said Keith Ashdown, spokesman for the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense. “The ferry takes four minutes.”

The bridge’s total cost is estimated at $315 million.

Again, proponents cite the potential for development as the impetus for the bridge project.

By contrast, Missouri’s two major bridge projects are designed to ease existing and projected congestion.

Sen. Kit Bond, who was responsible for much of the Senate’s version of the bill, secured $50 million for the initial work on a new Paseo Bridge in Kansas City. This is projected to serve 140,000 drivers daily within 25 years between downtown Kansas City and the Northland, at an estimated total cost of $245 million.

He also got $75 million for a Mississippi River bridge in St. Louis that the state transportation department estimates will serve 130,000 drivers a day by 2030.

One transportation industry analyst who didn’t want to be quoted by name for fear of antagonizing Young said that congestion relief and economic development can be legitimate reasons for earmarking projects.

“In Missouri, I think regardless of whether it’s earmarked or not, it’s pretty evident that the projections show it’s justified,” the expert said. “In Alaska, you’ve got a different situation entirely. … Have you ever been to Ketchikan? You can spit across it.”

Young, whose office declined to comment for this article, was not the only powerful player working for Alaska’s interests on the highway bill. Stevens also weighed in with plenty of earmarked projects.

But it’s Young, as chairman, whose fingerprints are all over the bill. Even its name.

The highway bill has in recent years been known by acronyms. The 1992 law was known as ISTEA. The 1998 law was TEA-21.

The new law’s name is the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users.

Known as SAFETEA-LU.

That LU was added at the insistence of Chairman Young.

Lu being the first name of Mrs. Don Young.

“It might be touching … but I can’t imagine any member of Congress’ wife would want their name attached to a $286 billion bill that spends money like this,” said Pete Sepp, spokesman for the nonpartisan National Taxpayers Union.

There is good news: Even Americans who never go to Alaska will be able to see their tax dollars at work.

A documentary film will be made about Alaska’s improving transportation infrastructure.

There’s no director yet. No distributor either. But the funding is in place.

There’s $3 million earmarked for it in the highway bill.