Most children have probably finished their Christmas lists to Santa Claus. Some elected officials, however, are still compiling theirs.
Close behind Detroit's wish list comes a long one from America's mayors.
Last Monday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors sent its list of wishes to the political equivalent of Santa Claus: Congress. The mayors apparently figure with all the talk from President-elect Obama about infrastructure repair and job creation, they might as well try to pile onto Santa's lap, too.
The mayors claim the economy will be stimulated if their wishes are granted. What do they want? The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) has analyzed the 72-page list. Here are some of the lowlights.
-- $1.102 billion in projects involving sidewalks;
-- $1 million for annual sewer rehabilitation in Casper, Wyo. (emphasis mine);
-- $6.1 million for corporate hangars, parking lots, and a business apron at the Fayetteville, Ark., airport.
-- 15 projects with the term "stadium" in them, including a $150 million Metromover extension to the Florida Marlins' baseball stadium; and
-- 81 projects mentioning "landscaping" and/or beautification efforts.
Kristina Rasmussen, NTU's director of government affairs, offers more analysis of the mayors' report on NTU's blog: "Total cost of the wish list is $73,163,299,303. They claim this will create an estimated 847,641 jobs in 2009 and 2010. Divide that out, and you get a cost to taxpayers of $86,314 per job. Not exactly a great deal."
No, it is not a great deal in that sense, but it is a great deal ... of money, not that this matters these days with hundreds of billions being tossed around as if it were confetti. But who's counting? Certainly not Congress; Congress has opened the purse strings faster than a bank teller faced with Willie Sutton's stick-up gun.
Here's one proposal I especially like: $1,500,000 for an initiative in Dayton, Ohio for the "Reduce Prostitution-Off the Streets Program." The proposed spending would "connect individuals involved in prostitution with resources to leave a life of prostitution." I guess Ronald Reagan was right when he observed, "It has been said that politics is the second-oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."
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