Thursday, August 11, 2005
One wag compared it to the immaculate conception. The transportation bill President Bush signed into law on Wednesday contains $20 million for a proposed ferry terminal in southern Sonoma County - and no one is claiming responsibility.
All we know is that J.T. Wick, who works for the company which owns the Port Sonoma marina, told Staff Writer Bob Norberg that he and Santa Rosa attorney Doug Bosco, the former congressman, lobbied for the money.
It is safe to say that the $20 million grant wouldn't exist if Rep. Don Young, the Alaska Republican who chairs the House Transportation Committee, thought it was a bad idea.
When politicians have $286 billion to play with, this sort of political sleight of hand will happen. According to the Washington Post, more than 6,000 so-called special projects are funded by this bill - including $3 million for dust mitigation on rural Arkansas roads and $200,000 for a deer avoidance system in Weedsport, N.Y.
About the local windfall, questions abound: How did this happen? Will there be adequate controls on how the money is spent? When the number of southbound commuters is declining, will there be sufficient patronage to make a ferry service financially feasible? What are the environmental consequences?
Already, Marin County environmentalists have come unglued about what they say is a threat to nearby wetlands, which provide habitat for the California clapper rail and the salt marsh harvest mouse, both on the federal list of endangered species.
For political scientists, it becomes an object lesson in the machinations of pork barrel politics. In secret, Congress decided to spend $20 million on a North Bay project - and no one can explain how or why. Both Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and U.S. Sen Barbara Boxer, who lives nearby in Marin County, said the expenditure was a surprise to them.
But secrecy isn't going to work for the owners of Port Sonoma and other ferry advocates. For a project with so many other issues, they can't afford to have this project remain a poster child for backroom deals.
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