Heath Shuler and his pork

Asheville Citizen-Times columnist John Boyle had a front-page column yesterday about U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler’s pursuit of taxpayers’ money for his district, the 11th Congressional District here in the mountains. Boyle’s column was full of cute references to “pork,” but I think he missed an opportunity to dig a little deeper.

Boyle failed to mention that this year, for the first time, members of congress were required to post their list of “earmark” requests on their Web sites. Congressmen had to be upfront about what money they were asking for for fiscal 2010, right there on their Web sites.

So what does Shuler want? He wants money for regional hospitals. He wants lots of money for water and sewer projects. He wants money for a “flood reduction” study for the Swannanoa River. Here are a  few more examples. Read carefully; there are some very interesting projects on Shuler’s list:

Asheville Regional Airport: $2 million for a new air traffic control tower and base building

Buncombe County: $3.5 million for upgrading leachate recirculation program and landfill

Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College Foundation: $382,365 to create a entrepreneurial agricultural associate’s degree; $750,000 to repair a heating and air conditioning issue that is close to malfunctioning and threatens 100 jobs; $500,000 for a project to spur innovation in biofuels and fuel cells.

CarePartners Health Services: $500,000 to integrate home-based services with a mobile electronic health record system.

Hendersonville: $350,000 for construction of a new emergency communications center which is in danger of being over capacity.

Duke Pro Inc.: $1.5 million for this Asheville business to develop a LORI, a “remote initiator” that will help military personnel remotely detonate roadside bombs.

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians: $1 million for plan to improve health care options for tribe members.

Haywood Regional Medical Center: $2 million to build a 10,000-square-foot inpatient hospice center with 12 beds, the only such center in a seven-county area.

Henderson County Sheriff’s Office: $1 million to complete a Pictometry project that would give a number of law enforcement agencies the ability to use a visual intelligence tool to instantly see 12 different views of any feature in its jurisdiction and enhance public safety. The project would cover Cherokee, Clay, Buncombe, Jackson, Macon, Swain, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Polk, McDowell, Swain, Transylvania and Yancey counties, as well as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Madison County: $1 million for a new jail; $500,000 to make repairs to the Madison County courthouse, which is nearly 100 years old.

McDowell County: $3.5 million to develop a quality water intake and treatment plant for Lake James, which is an important water source.

N.C. National Guard, Raleigh: $1.6 million to establish family assistance centers across the state; $1.2 to help local law enforcement agencies fight illegal drugs across the state; $1.7 million for a mentoring program for at-risk youth.

State Highway Patrol: $514,415 to help Asheville’s Troop G buy and install a state-of-the-art communications console to replace a console that is nearly 30 years old, with replacement parts no longer available.

Swain County: $6 million toward the funding of a settlement of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s obligations to the county in lieu of building the North Shore Road.

 

That’s quite a list, and that’s not all. Click here to see all of Shuler’s requests. Click here to see a links to all congressional members’ requests.