Local Wish Lists

One intersting aspect of the battle over transportation is that it’s given us a glimpse at the wish lists of area legislators. The representatives are required to post their transportation earmark requests on their Web pages, and I’ve looked at nine of them.

Remember the "Bridge to Nowhere" that cropped up last year in coverage of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s vice-presidential run? That began as an earmark attached to Safety Lou.

"Earmark" is a loaded term; the official rubric is "High Priority Project." Whatever you call them, the ones requested by Houston-area lawmakers came to $1.1 billion.

The Republican requests, in total, came to $720 million, compared to the Democrats’ total of $381 million. This was so even though GOP Reps. Michael McCaul and Kevin Brady declined to request any earmarks, leaving a fairly even partisan split among the other members I surveyed: Republicans John Culberson, Pete Olson, Ron Paul and Ted Poe and Democrats Al Green, Gene Green and Sheila Jackson Lee.

Culberson asked for the largest single earmark: $267 million to expand U.S. 290 and build commuter railroad along the Hempstead Highway. Paul listed 17 separate requests, for a total of $341 million.

All of this is highly tentative right now, and it’s unlikely that the Congress people will get all that they wish for, whenever they finally get around to re-authorizing Safety Lou.