Deseret News | Spending bill OK'd, with a wad for Utah

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Spending bill OK'd, with a wad for Utah

But watchdog groups say measure is full of pork-barrel waste

By Lee Davidson
Deseret Morning News

Published: Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2003 8:28 a.m. MST

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$9 million to start planning for the Weber-Davis portion of the proposed Ogden-Provo commuter rail system.

$6 million for buses for the Utah Transit Authority and transit agencies in Park City, Logan and St. George.

$6 million for the completed I-15 reconstruction project from 10800 South to 600 North in Salt Lake County.

$1.1 million for the Southeastern Utah Methamphetamine Project.

$1 million for the Provo Pioneer Neighborhood Revitalization project.

$1 million for the Ogden Central Neighborhood Redevelopment project.

$1 million for Mormon cricket control.

$600,000 to help Orem purchase an electronic records management system.

$500,000 for Sandy crime lab enhancements.

$500,000 to help Logan develop a new Northwest Public Park.

Numerous research projects for local colleges including $7.7 million alone for Utah State University-related labs and facilities ranging from research on poisonous plants to the study of bee pollen.

The $373 billion bill includes $45 billion for highway, aviation and mass transit projects that comes from transportation taxes, such as the federal levy on gasoline.

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In addition, the bill triggers the expenditure of $447 billion for Medicare and other automatically paid benefits for which no congressional decision-making is required.

Republicans said the bill, which controls one-sixth of the $2.2 trillion federal budget, crowned an effort for them to control spending.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., said the bill's price tag would have been even higher had his panel included more of lawmakers' requests for earmarks, which he said exceeded $50 billion.

E-MAIL: lee@desnews.com