FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 12, 2009
CONTACT: Rebecca Alper
NJPIRG Program Associate
Office: (609) 394-8155 x313
Cell: (617) 840-5999
ralper@njpirg.org
Across the Nation Campaign Contributions Greasing the Wheels for New Highway Construction?
Despite Crumbling Infrastructure, in 2008 Only About 10 Percent of Transportation Earmark Dollars Went to Repairs
Trenton, Nov. 12 – The nation has 73,000 crumbling bridges, but year after year startlingly few federal transportation dollars go to fixing them.
In 2008, for example, just a few months after the tragic Minneapolis bridge collapse which killed 13 and sparked alarm and outrage across the country, Congress directed only 74 of the 704 highway projects earmarked in the transportation appropriations bill to repair or maintain a bridge, tunnel, or overpass.
Only about ten percent of the projects, and about ten percent of the funding, focused on fixing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. Most of the $570 million went for new highways and other new construction.
Millions of dollars also flowed in another direction… from highway construction companies and the trade associations that represent them to the campaign coffers of elected officials in New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
Were those dollars “greasing the wheels” in our state and federal capitols?
NJPIRG’s new Greasing the Wheels: the Crossroads of Campaign Money and Transportation Policy looks at the 2008 transportation appropriations bill using data never before available, laying out the details of Congress’ earmark requests. The report, released on Thursday, also examines the campaign contributions from highway construction interests both here in New Jersey and nationally.
“In our current political system, elected officials must raise huge sums of campaign contributions from major donors to win reelection,” said NJPIRG Program Associate Rebecca Alper.
“In part because of this, we believe that transportation spending is skewed toward road-widening and new highway projects favored by developers, road builders and the other interests who make those contributions,” she added.
“We need to clean up the campaign finance system so that lawmakers can focus on the needs of the public rather than their major donors,” she concluded.
Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-14) joined NJPIRG’s Alper at the event.
The Assemblywoman explained, “Public campaign financing needs to be expanded from pilot programs, like that used in my district in 2007, to wider use at the state and federal level. When constituents are encouraged to give small contributions, they feel a part of the political process and have a greater trust in government.”
She also supported the fix-it-first transportation policies recommended in the report, saying, “We need to prioritize bridge repair projects in New Jersey with both federal and state transportation dollars.”
Greasing the Wheels: the Crossroads of Campaign Money and Transportation Policy report is available on the NJPIRG website by clicking here.
-##-
NJPIRG is the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organizations.
NJPIRG-Greasing-the-Wheels.pdf