Your Tax Dollars Held Captive
(CBS)
Here's one of the strange things about the $100,000 Congressional earmark for a Prison Museum in Kansas, the subject of my report tonight on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric: the money is for the interior of the museum, presumably for things like display cases. But the museum planning isn't even far enough along for anyone to know how much is needed for the interior. In fact, before anyone can really think about the interior, the town of Lansing, Kansas has to raise about $3 million to build the outside of the museum, and the hard core fundraising hasn't even started.
Some would say giving $100,000 commitment of federal tax dollars to a local museum that may never be more than the current 3-D model... is putting the cart before the horse. What if I told you that the Kansas member of Congress who got the earmark, Nancy Boyda, actually asked for more than ten times that amount for the Prison Museum in her home state? It's true. She put in for $1.18 million tax dollars for the museum. That amount was apparently whittled down by her fellow Democrats.
When I asked Rep. Boyda why she wanted so much money for the Museum, she said it's simply because the Lansing, Kansas Mayor asked. "We get all kinds of requests (for earmarks) and, for the most part, we made the request that we were asked," Boyda told me.
It sure makes her sound generous with our tax dollars... as though all one needs to do is get Nancy Boyda's ear, ask for federal money for a project, and she'll comply.
When I asked Rep. Boyda why federal tax money should pay for a local project that is apparently designed to help the local economy, Boyda gave a big picture answer...
