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Last Updated: 5:49 am | Saturday, June 30, 2007

Agencies love that budget 'pork'

THE ENQUIRER

COLUMBUS – Often overlooked during the three months of debate over the $52.4 billion state budget is
behind-the-scenes lobbying for local community programs.

Nicknamed “earmarks” by legislative staff or “pork” by spending critics, many non-profit agencies or universities
count on the taxpayer subsidies to fund specialized research or local projects over the next two years.

Tucked away in the 800 1,865-page budget bill signed Saturday by Gov. Ted Strickland is at least $36 million
for organizations in Southwest Ohio. The money is separate from $1.8 billion in capital construction projects
previously approved by the state legislature in December 2006. The state’s fiscal year starts today.

“We call them pork. It’s really specific stuff that’s bringing home bacon to these districts,” said David Hansen,
president of the Buckeye Institute, a conservative public policy and research group based in Columbus.

Hansen said the money should be raised privately or at least distributed more equitably through a competitive
process.

“It reflects the tastes of the political elites,” Hansen said. “You see the symphony being funded and the
museums. You don’t see NASCAR being funded. You don’t see a Bowling Hall of Fame. It just reflects a bias in
those who have access to politics.”

But Donna Foust, manager of the Talking Book Program at Cincinnati’s Library for the Blind, said, “It’s the sole
source of our money. We do have some minor gifts given to us, but not enough to run the program.”

The program serves 33 counties, providing free recorded books, magazines and playback equipment to
thousands of blind, visually impaired, physically handicapped and reading disabled Ohioans, she said.

“I’m not going to pick on anything for the blind, or I’m not going to be against a poison control center,” Hansen
said. “But this is part of a broken-down appropriation process, where spending flows in a way that supports
political objectives.”

Former Senate President Dick Finan of Evendale successfully lobbied to get $100,000 for the Cincinnati Arts &
Technology Center, and Cincinnati lobbyist Dick Weiland helped get $100,000 for the Contemporary Arts
Center. In both cases, the subsidies were added in a later version of the budget, passed by the Ohio House
May 1.

Linda Tresvant, chief executive officer of the Cincinnati Arts and Technology Center, said the project is part of
the Community Action Now education initiative started after the 2001 riots. High school juniors and seniors
identified as being at high risk of not graduating participate in the program at Longworth Hall. The money also is
going toward technology upgrades and job training for unemployed adults, Tresvant said.

Weiland said he encountered a tight budget from the outset. “If it wasn’t in the governor’s version, it was very
tough to get money,” he said.

For instance, Weiland said he failed to land any state money for the Cincinnati Zoo or the National
Underground Railroad Freedom Center. “You lose a lot of them and we win some,” he said Friday. “You never
knew what (Strickland) was going to do since he was so new.’’
Under Strickland’s original budget, the Freedom Center was to get $250,000 a year for operating proceeds on
top of $2 million approved last December for capital construction debt. But the Ohio House cut all $500,000 in
new operating money for the center.

Several people testified before a Senate panel in June against restoring the local Freedom Center subsidy:
“Where is all that money going?” Cathy D. Nelson, state coordinator for the Ohio Underground Railroad
Association, asked of earlier subsidies. Nelson suggested the earmark go to other Underground Railroad sites.

At least four other local entities represented by Weiland saw their state subsidies increased during the three-
month budget process: the Cincinnati Museum Center, Art Academy of Cincinnati, Family Service and
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

The Museum Center got an extra $100,000 a year for operating revenues over the last two-year budget,
bringing its annual subsidy to $350,000, according to Doug McDonald, museum president and chief executive
officer.

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