Bailout: Mayors go wild on pork (SF..leads the pack)

December 19, 9:11 AMSF Politics ExaminerArthur Bruzzone

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Americans sit by by watching industries stand in line for a bailout.  Now comes a line of American mayors, pork lists in hand.  San Francisco right out front with a request for $2.2 billion.

We understand that these projects do create jobs..for high paid city workers.  But the 'audacity'--$96 billion.  Among the projects proposed:

*  $20 million minor league baseball museum in Durham, North Carolina;

*   $6.1 million for corporate jet hangars at the Fayetteville, Arkansas, airport;

*   $20 million for renovations at the Philadelphia Zoo;

*   $1.5 million program to reduce prostitution in Dayton, Ohio.

San Francisco had the most audacious wish list:

*  Port repairs, $130,000,000

*  Hunters Point Redevelopment, $30,000,000

*  New San Francisco government offices, $50,000,000

*  New emergency response communications system, $600,000,000!!

*  Golden Gate highway approach, Doyle Drive, $100,000,000

*  Public transit system, $275.000.000

Pete Sepp, vice president of the National Taxpayers Union, commented "it's impossible for any normal taxpaying American to read this and not come away scratching their head and saying, 'Wait a minute, this isn't about infrastructure,'" Sepp said. "This is about political power grabs, money grabs."