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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/nyregion/05earmarks.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

District Liked Its Earmarks, Then Elected Someone Who Didn’t

“Let’s say you have a honey-producing county somewhere in the United States and they want to set up a honey museum,” Ms. Hayworth said, offering a hypothetical example of earmarking run amok. “Fine. Go ahead. But use your money to do it.”

Over the years, the 19th Congressional District has done relatively well with earmarks.

Ms. Hayworth’s predecessor, Mr. Hall, secured nearly 70 earmarks totaling $51.9 million during the four years he was in office, according to an analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense.

But Mr. Hall, aware of the controversy surrounding these spending items, put in place internal measures requiring any earmark his office sought to meet certain criteria, including that it create jobs locally or fulfill a public health and safety need in the district, according to a member of his former staff.

Mr. Hall also posted his earmark requests on his Congressional Web site, the former staff member said, and to allow constituents to comment.

Still, the programs, projects and services he helped finance were the kind of parochial initiatives that critics of earmarking criticize as pork: repairs to U.S. 6 in Cortlandt, teacher training in the town of Florida and flood mitigation at the parking lot of the Croton-Harmon train station. But as politicians in Washington like to say, one man’s pork is another man’s need, and even people in the 19th District who oppose earmarks in theory have a different view up close.

Charles Duffy, the supervisor of the town of Lewisboro, is a registered Conservative who campaigned for Ms. Hayworth. But he said he believed that local officials ought to be able to call on their Congress member for help with a local need, though he says the system could be fixed.

“You want your federal representatives to still be able to help your region,” said Mr. Duffy, whose town includes the hamlet of South Salem, where nearly $200,000 went to build a library.

That was also the sentiment in Dover, a town that received $250,000 to replace a century-old bridge that state engineers deemed unsafe, according to interviews and public records.

Ryan Courtien, the Democratic town supervisor of Dover, was one of the officials who sought the financing from Mr. Hall. He questions an outright ban on earmarks, saying legislators should be able to say how federal money is spent. A better solution, he said, would be to make the process more transparent.

Ms. Hayworth has supporters. Douglas Bloomfield, the Republican supervisor of the Town of Goshen, said he backed her stance, arguing that the federal deficit needs to be brought under control.

But he also told a story about one earmark he requested.

In 2007, he said, he went to Mr. Hall’s office seeking money to replace the main water line running into a subdivision with 160 homes. Mr. Hall eventually delivered, securing an earmark of nearly $400,000.

Mr. Bloomfield accepted it. Why? “Our particular one was great because it’s absolutely required,” he said.


Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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