CAGW recently named House Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) Porker of the Month for August, 2007. In the wake of the deadly Minnesota bridge collapse, Chairman Oberstar’s immediate reaction was to call for tax increases and new spending.

He originally proposed a “temporary� 5 cent increase in the gas tax to raise $25 billion within three years for a new bridge trust fund. Interestingly enough, the last highway bill was stuffed with pork-barrel projects worth nearly the same amount ($24 billion).

Despite the well-established need to repair and restore bridges in his state, Rep. Oberstar fell victim to the pork temptation. In 2004, as Congress was in the process of crafting the highway bill, Rep. Oberstar heralded in a press release his success in adding $1.3 million to construct the Mesabi Station, a bike and rollerblade rental system.

In the final bill, he came away with five projects totaling $14.6 million for Duluth, Minnesota, including $3.2 million for the Munger Trail extension. The 69-mile Willard Munger State Trail, named after former Rep. Willard Munger (D-Minn.), stretches from Duluth to Hinckley. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, it is the longest paved recreational trail in the nation. In-line skaters, bicyclists, hikers and snowmobilers enjoy the Munger Trail, which is now being subsidized by non-participating taxpayers.

Rep. Oberstar also added an earmark in the House version of the highway bill for a $1 billion six-year project to build sidewalks and bike paths to schools and encourage children to exercise more. The Safe Routes to School Program, run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was funded at $612 million in the final version of the legislation.

Other “high-priority� transportation projects in the 2005 highway bill included $452 million for the infamous “Bridges to Nowhere� in Alaska, $5 million to improve air quality in the Sacramento region of California, $4 million to develop bicycle paths and public park space adjacent to the New River in Calexico, California, and $4 million for streetscape, pedestrian improvements in Clarkson, Georgia.

Rep. Oberstar should be the first to call for the transfer of any remaining earmarked funds from the highway bill to repair and restore bridges. Instead, he is protecting transportation pork, and seizing an opportunity to turn tragedy into tax increases and an unnecessary new trust fund. Rep. Jim Oberstar richly deserves the designation of August 2007 Porker of the Month.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 10:12 am and is filed under Politics .