By Brian Balfour

For the Salisbury Post

With another legislative session in the books, most of the public's attention will turn to the $21.4 billion budget passed for the current fiscal year. Not to be forgotten, however, should be the billions worth of "earmark" spending requests filed by state lawmakers — in other words, the money our General Assembly members wanted to spend.

In recent years, much attention and scrutiny has been placed on the use of "earmarks" in the federal budget. The Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) describes an earmark as "funds provided by the Congress for projects or programs where the congressional direction (in bill or report language) circumvents the merit-based or competitive allocation process, or specifies the location or recipient, or otherwise curtails the ability of the executive branch to properly manage funds."

Applied to North Carolina, any bill that requests funding could be categorized as an "earmark" if it directs state funds to a specific recipient or geographic location. Most of these projects should be financed by local governments, subject to local taxpayer approval. Further, earmarks represent spending that bypasses an appropriate legislative process. For example, many earmark bills involve funding requests for capital projects on college campuses throughout the state. Such financing decisions should be made based on consultation with the UNC Board of Governors, not by the respective power of the legislators making the earmark requests.

In North Carolina, specific earmarking of projects in the budget is not as widespread as with the Federal government, but is growing. Our state legislature, however, does not have the same earmarking system as the federal government. Here, members file individual bills as placeholders or requests to denote their specific earmark. Most of these so-called earmark request bills are introduced with no intention of ever being properly debated or voted upon. More often than not, these bills are introduced merely as a means to make the lead budget-makers aware of the desired spending priorities in both chambers.

Think of these spending bills as the "wish list" for our General Assembly.

During the recently completed two-year budget cycle, North Carolina's state government wish list totaled more than $2.7 billion. Only a small fraction of this amount actually made it into the budget, but examining this wish list reveals the mindset of our state leaders and what they consider to be legitimate use of taxpayer dollars.

Many in the public and the media have begun to define the terms "earmark" and "pork" in the same manner. While there are differences between the two categories, most pork spending does originate from earmark requests, and North Carolina's state government wish list doesn't disappoint.

Although lawmakers in Raleigh cry out one side of their mouth about the lack of funds for schools, police and roads; they are busy filing hundreds upon hundreds of bills requesting financing for their pet earmark projects. Some of the most outrageous of these bills include (bill number and sponsor in parentheses):- $1 Million for one new soccer field in the town of Holly Ridge — estimated population of 730. (H1048. Grady, R-Onslow) That's right, a million dollars for one soccer field – not a stadium or a soccer complex, but one field.

- $55,000 for a "national banjo museum and an informational clearinghouse for banjo-related data" in Rockingham Co. (H1331. Cole, D-Rockingham)

- $150,000 for the preservation of the "historic Old Pickle Shed" in the town of Faison. (H286. Tucker, D-Duplin)

- $90,000 to construct a "walking trail and a changing room" in the city of Northwest — estimated population of 671. (S270. Soles- Columbus)

- $20 Million for a "Western NC Museum of History," to be located in Buncombe Co. (S1355. Nesbitt -Buncombe)

- $25,000 for the outdoor drama "Horn in the West." (H2080. Tarleton, D-Watauga)

- $16.3 million to "Construct oyster hatcheries at each of the three North Carolina aquariums." (S1103. Boseman, D- New Hanover)

- $3 Million for an East Coast Drag Racing Hall of Fame in Henderson. (H297. Crawford, D-Granville)

- $1.75 Million to pay for the city of New Bern's 300th Anniversary celebration in 2010. (H1540. Wainwright, D-Craven; Underhill, D-Craven)

- $100,000 in funds for a mobile barbershop (S2049. Dannelly, D- Mecklenburg).

Fortunately, only one of these items (Horn in the West) made it into the FY 2008-09 budget, but that won't keep lawmakers from trying again next year. At a time when working North Carolina families are struggling to put gas in their car and food on their plates, our elected leaders are concerned with using your tax dollars to finance banjo museums and pickle sheds.

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Brian Balfour is a policy analyst with the Civitas Institute in Raleigh. For information, visit www.nccivitas.org.

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