This week Alaskan Republicans Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens secured more than $20 million for an "expeditionary
craft" built by Lockheed Martin that will connect Anchorage with the windblown rural peninsula
of Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The earmark was included in the omnibus spending bill passed this week.
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough ferry will be "like
no other and that has stretched the minds of the best naval engineers
in the world." As
currently envisioned, the ferry will hold about 20 vehicles and 115
passengers. What
a wonderful holiday present for the 59,000 people that live in the
Matanuska-Susitna Borough and can enjoy the marvels of sophisticated
naval engineering. Now they don't have to drive the arduous 40 minutes to Anchorage.
The driving route that the ferry line will replace:
Why the state of Alaska can't pay for its own ferry with oil tax revenue remains a mystery to some. But the rule of earmarking is; why pay for it with State money if the bill can be dumped on all Americans?
Government spending watchdogs are calling this earmark the ferry to nowhere. We call it number nine on the year's most wasted list.