Tax Dollars Down the Dumper for Turtles: $3.4 Million of Stimulus Money Slotted for Building 1 Turtle Tunnel
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 10, 2009
$3.4 MILLION to build a turtle tunnel is a wasteful use of stimulus money, no matter how cute turtles in Florida are... cougars are cooler, and if we're doomed to waste stimulus money, my vote is for cougars instead. We DO get to vote, right?
I like turtles. I’m not nutsy gaga over them, but I like them just as much as I like lizards.
Using taxpayer-funded stimulus money to the tune of $3.4 million to build one underground crossing in Florida for them, however, is waaay too much money to spend. On TURTLES… during a recession. TURTLES.
If any creatures should be helped using stimulus money and Democrats are anxious to frivolously dump $3.4 million of our tax money doing it (and then pretend that it’s economic “stimulus”), I say forget the turtles and go for helping the bigger, cooler animals, like cougars and wolves. Turtles are nice, but cougars are COOL. You know I’m right.
Help needed here, Mr. President and Florida lawmakers: How exactly does saving ANY turtles stimulate the economy? I must have missed that lecture in my Econ 101 class.
The following news excerpts list additional non-stimulus items that will be bought with taxpayer stimulus money. No wonder the clowns in DC think we need a second stimulus package. They hijacked and wasted the first one. Knuckleheads… and Obama is the biggest knucklehead of all, because he promised several times that his people would go carefully through this porkulus package like no other administration in US history had done before. They would remove ALL pet projects, earmarks, and pork barrel spending. Total transparency and responsibility. Total protection for American taxpayers and every dollar would go to creating stimulus, to jump-starting our economy.
He forgot to mention that being careful with our money and jump-starting the economy meant spending a fat and sassy $3M on turtles.
From Los Angeles Times: Stimulus program fraught with waste, report says:
A report due to be released today by a Republican senator contends the Obama administration’s stimulus program is fraught with waste and incompetence — evidenced by a turtle crossing in northern Florida that will cost more than $3 million and a snafu in which thousands of Social Security checks went out to people who had died.
Modeled after a release from the White House describing 100 stimulus projects that were in the works, the report put out by Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma looks at the same number of projects but reaches starkly different conclusions. The title is “A Second Opinion on the Stimulus.”
[...]
A theme of Coburn’s work is that money is going toward dubious projects that will leave little imprint. One project mentioned is the $3.4-million construction of a 13-foot tunnel near Tallahassee, Fla., that will allow turtles and other wildlife to safely cross U.S. Highway 27.
The report said the area “has the highest road-kill mortality rate for turtles in the world.” But it also suggests other uses for the money, and mentions Florida State University’s plans to lay off 200 faculty and staff members in hopes of saving millions of dollars.
Officials at the Florida Department of Transportation defended the project as one that not only would save turtles but also protect motorists. “A lot of these turtles are quite large. They get hit by a car, and they turn into flying objects,” said Josh Boan, the department’s natural resources manager.
Construction on the tunnel is to begin in September. State officials could not estimate how many jobs would be created.
No estimate? Weren’t the stimulus dollars meant to create new jobs for Americans? Then why don’t state officials have some kind of idea as to how many jobs will be created? They sure as heck do know how many turtles will be using the turtle crossing, though.
From ABC News:
Stimulus Waste? The $3.4 Million Turtle Crossing
ABC News | July 10, 2009
As the Obama administration tests the waters for a second massive government stimulus, critics are questioning the effectiveness of the first $787 billion program, which they say is moving at a turtle’s pace and includes some absurd and wasteful pork projects.
Controversy surrounds roads signs touting taxpayer money hard at work.The president’s economic advisors said that the administration did not anticipate the severity of the recession and that it might now be necessary for the government to pump more money into the economy to prevent further job losses.
But critics say that the $787 billion stimulus isn’t being spent fast enough and some of the projects approved are frivolous and do nothing to stimulate the economy. Before we dig the country further into debt, they argue, we should wait and see how the first stimulus plan works.
“I don’t think we need to have another stimulus bill. I think we need to change this one so that we spend the money right now,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who has been critical of the plan.
Then there are the questionable projects.
For instance, the Florida Department of Transportation wants to spend $3.4 million in stimulus money for a turtle tunnel. That’s right, $3.4 million to help turtles cross under a highway. Each year, 1,035 turtles are killed on a half-mile stretch of highway north of Tallahassee, according to The Lake Jackson Ecopassage Alliance, a group advocating for the tunnel. They are hoping to use the stimulus dough to save the turtles.
Across the country in Montana, a border crossing that averages fewer than two passenger cars a day and two to three trucks a month is slated to get $15 million in stimulus funds for upgrades.
One Utah sheriff’s office wants to spend $25,000 in stimulus money for a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
To keep track of all the spending, the government has created a Web site. But nothing in life is free.
The independent General Services Administration quietly put out a release Wednesday night saying the site would be redesigned — for $9.5 million and, perhaps, as much as $18 million in the next five years.
Most of the projects paid for by the stimulus will also get signs announcing: “Project Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” Those signs do not come cheap, of course. Small signs can start at $400 in Michigan all the way up to more than $8,000 for a large highway sign in New York.
“We need to be spending money now on things that have true value,” Coburn said.
His dream spending list would include money for highways, roads and bridges, dam-repairs and a larger new homeowner tax credit. Coburn also suggested spending $100 billion to restock the military with supplies. That, he said, would immediately get idled factory lines running again.
“Those are jobs that would click in within 30 days,” he said.
The other week Coburn released “100 Stimulus Projects: A Second Opinion,” a report examining projects Coburn claimed to be wasteful and paid for by stimulus money.
[...]
About two-thirds of the total stimulus money so far has been used for short-term projects rather than long-term job creation, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.
However, Obama administration officials report that the rate of stimulus spending will increase substantially in the months to come.
“It is clear from the data that there needs to be more fiscal stimulus in the second half of the year than there was in the first half of the year,” White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers said this week. “Fortunately, the stimulus program designed by the president and passed by Congress provides exactly that.”
“We said all along … we weren’t putting an emphasis on helping small businesses create jobs and being able to weather the current economy,” said Kurt Bardella, spokesman for House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking member Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “Unfortunately there were not enough mechanisms to ensure that the money goes to where it was promised and there’s nothing to safeguard against how stimulus funding is used once it’s disseminated in localities.”
[...]
And with talks of a second stimulus, some lawmakers are skeptical.
“The idea of a second stimulus is a clear admission that first stimulus isn’t working,” Bardella said. “It is nothing but a false hope.”
Vice president Joe Biden did warn us about how he and the Obama administration were not capable of guarding the stimulus bill money or making sure it went to the right parties: VP Biden Says to Expect “Scamming & Waste” of Stimulus Money on His Watch: Billions at Stake, Bring in Wile E. Coyote
Coyotes are cool, too. Add them to my list with the cougars and wolves. And take the turtles off.
It’s time to let Congress and the president know this pork barrel spending nonsense won’t be tolerated anymore. Make your voice heard, contact your senators and House reps. Flood their emails and faxes. America is heading towards the falls, and we need to throw her a strong lifeline before she drowns. Tell them NO to a second stimulus package… they royally botched the first one.
Related posts:
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About the author
Senator Coburn and the GOP have misrepresented the so-called turtle tunnels from the get go. Coburn originally portrayed this project as a 13 foot tunnel. Well, it turns out that the tunnel is 152 feet long. The project actually calls for three tunnels, representing only 6.7% of the overall budget. More importantly, 2 miles of barrier walls will be constructed on each side of a 4-lane divided highway. This highway was built by the feds through the middle of a lake – not any lake but Florida’s only aquatic preserve. The Lake Jackson Ecopassage accomplishes three very important goals: (1) it protects motorists from thousands of animals (not just turtles) moving back and forth over the highway (including 40 pound turtles and 8 foot long alligators); (2) it protects wildlife and rights the wrong that was committed many decades ago when this highway was put through a protected wetlands; and (3) it will create the equivalent of 200 construction-related jobs for a year. This is a great project and it is frustrating to hear the GOP touting this as a boondoggle. At the very least, if you are going to criticize the project, do it based on the real facts – not Coburn’s misinformation as parroted by the LA Times and other media sources. Coburn claimed the project wasn’t shovel ready, wasn’t fully funded, was still in the design phase, etc. All of these assertions are incorrect.
Thanks for providing the information – it is not just the GOP who have criticized this project using stimulus money. ABC News and the Los Angeles Times and many other mainstream media also consider it a waste of stimulus money.
It’s good to have information from the “other side of the fence.” Thanks, Ron.
[...] Vicki McClure Davidson added an interesting post on Tax Dollars Down the Dumper for Turtles: $3.4 Million of Stimulus …Here’s a small excerptTax Dollars Down the Dumper for Turtles: $3.4 Million of Stimulus Money Slotted for Building 1 Turtle Tunnel. Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 10, 2009. $3.4 MILLION to build a turtle tunnel is a wasteful use of stimulus money, no matter how cute …. His dream spending list would include money for highways, roads and bridges, dam-repairs and a larger new homeowner tax credit. Coburn also suggested spending $100 billion to restock the military with supplies. … [...]
This is silly, but I’m not focusing on the President I’m wondering who are the Congress persons in that state that pushed it, through you and I would be suprised if there were some repubicians invovled. As for Sara Palin I think that McCain and his campaign mananger dirtied up her image and I don’t think she’ll ever get it back. As for me they made her into an attack dog for John McCain and it was very ugly. I will never vote for her because of that, but I’m willing to give her a another hearing to change my mind. I’m just being fair.
The Porkulus is a train-wreck- these jobs figures are far worse than the ones the White House warned us about if we DIDN’T pass the bill- so it was passed, and then unemployment soars anyway?
Instead of creating jobs, interest rates were bumped up, the dollar slid… and it didn’t help anybody get any work. Much of this is due to the fact that Obama’s agenda has mortified almost every machine of job-and-growth creation in the country.
The One couldn’t deliver the type of “temporary, targeted, and timely” bill that he promised repeatedly. And regardless of his image in the MSM, Obama simply lacks the the political stature to control Pelosi and Reid… who hit the trough hard, while bickering like children.
And the lack of GOP co-conspirators exposed Obama politically… this legislation now looks to be a HUGE gamble. And when all this pork-n-welfare fails to generate any real economic gains, the Democrats will face a bloodbath in 2010.
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com
It is tougher to get the facts straight on all of the obscure expenditures made by Stimulus Bill administrators than to get the secret sausage recipe from Jimmy Dean.
An expenditure buried in Florida’s list of shovel ready projects for a $3.4 million Stimulus dollar funded Tallahassee turtle tunnel rose from obscurity when Sen. Tom Coburn issued his top 100 worst Stimulus spending projects.
Curiosity and interest for more details on the $3.4 million dollar post-dated check written during the Obama spending orgy was intensified by the preposterous comments made by the hyper-passionate proponents of the 3.4 million dollar turtle passageway.
Government representatives, feeling the heat from the light of public scrutiny after nationwide news reports revealed the turtle tunnel details, have become as articulate as Johnny Cochran in their less-than-accurate defense of the project.
Taxpayers were subtly told about the Stimulus project plans, “If the tunnel fits, you must remit.”
Obvious weakening of public support for the new tunnelbahn, designed specifically to insure safe passage for turtles and frogs from an 1800 lake to 50 acre pond, has public officials shifting their arguments from turtles to public safety as a prime reason for spending the funds.
Without any documented evidence of a single turtle caused automobile accident report at the site, government representatives have became more creative than Star Trek conventioneers, offering far fetched, anecdotal evidence of the potential dangers to drivers from unfettered turtle forays onto the Tallahassee highway.
One government spokesman employed the use of shocking visual imagery to sway public support by suggesting that collisions with turtles could create flying projectiles that could come crashing through driver’s windshields.
Adding to turtle crossing folklore, a local county commissioner suggested a nightmare scenario of a driver colliding with a 40 pound turtle, creating in the reader’s mind, the same impact as hitting a Wyoming boulder.
Emboldened by official pronouncements describing the likelihood of driver impalement by flying snapping turtles and collisions with giant 40 to 50pound turtles the size of manhole covers; green eco-spending zealots added additional animals that might likely choose to avail themselves of safe passage through the long dark tunnel, which will run under a four lane highway in the highly developed Florida capital.
Black bear and white tailed deer are said to be planning their AAA “trip ticket” through the passageway even though the entry point is located next to a liquor store in a highly developed area where the deer must be secretly housed in lakeside condos. The popularity of Bambi and Yogi, representing the larger animal travel demographic, is apparently thought to evoke more sympathy from the animal loving public. Will the Sasquatch be the next critter included in potential tunnel crossing herd?
No one doubts that the cars damaging collisions with wildlife are a problem around the country…… but apparently, not at this location.
Very few people are against reasonable efforts to prevent innocent wildlife , but at what expense?
Admirable work by compassionate volunteers resulted in the erection of an inexpensive fabric filter fence for $10,000 or so that effectively stopped the majority of turtle deaths for the last nine years. But the project is now headed for a $3.4 million dollar Stimulus money subsidy added to the $2.6 million dollars already spent in state and local money, for a total government run ”makeover” price of $6 million dollars. “What’s Not To Wear” producers are said to be looking at the “makeover” transition for their season ending episode.
Rational thinking by most who examine the turtle problem would lead to the logical conclusion that an inexpensive chain link fence would suffice in stopping the turtle carnage, caused by turtle seeking higher grounds to lay their eggs or just traveling from one water body to another as turtles are prone to do, rather than the construction of expensive concrete tunnel infrastructure. There is already an eight foot tall steel culvert under the road into which a new chain link fence would funnel the critters.
The turtlebahn is really just an example of the bigger problem that goes on in every community in every state in our country. The template looks like this:
Passionate individuals identify problem or perceived problem.
Supporters and volunteers are recruited to address problem.
Support groups and press are enlisted to elevate cause to “cause celebre” status.
Non objective media outlets become underwriters of the cause by supplying free advertising.
Profile of cause is raised from “cause célèbre” to “noble cause”, the minimum threshold level needed to attract politicians seeking to enhance their resumes with “noble cause” experience.
Government funds are sought to finance the cause.
Volunteers, press, and politicians become lobbyists for the funding.
Funding is granted.
Small, effective, and inexpensive volunteer project balloons to giant, inefficient government run program.
Another success for the government “body snatchers”, who, aided by the ” Do Gooders” gang (member from the ranks of ex volunteers), have successfully kidnapped an inexpensive and sucessful volunteer-run enterprise, and replaced it with an expensive, massive government run look-a-like. In turn, previous voluntary financial support for the enterprise becomes replaced with funds mandated for the 50% of the taxpayers who pay 97% of all taxes. The kidnap victim, who had been nurtured by private voluntary acts of kindness, must now look to the hand of government for its sustenance and must live in the world of the government gulag, financed with a Chinese mortgage with a 40% loan to value ratio.
Blind support for unreasonable government projects only confirms what critics of government waste intuitively know in the pit of their conservative stomachs; do-gooders like to do a whole “lotta” good when they are using somebody else’s money, especially Stimulus money. There is no end to the creative ways they can conjure up to spend it.
Cohesive, thoughtful commentary. Thank you for sharing these excellent observations.
As you stated, most people are indeed in favor of frugal, reasonable, responsible efforts to prevent innocent wildlife from being harmed or driven to extinction, “but at what expense?”