Skylune wrote:
Well then, that's another example of outrageous pork spending for special
interests (recreational boaters) that serve no national interest, using a
pretext of serving some other national good.

Well, Tellico doesn't meet my definition of pork barrel spending. To me, a
project that spends most of the money outside the building area isn't really
pork barrel. The primary driver for Tellico was basically to increase the size
and power of TVA. Like most dams, it was built in a sparsely populated area, so
all supplies had to be brought in from outside. Since the Feds were footing the
bill, most came from outside the State. As is the case with most (perhaps all)
Federal projects at that time, all workers were union members. Unions don't just
grab people off the street and hand them journeyman cards, so most of the
workers came from out of State.

Basically, with the vast majority of the materials and labor coming from
outside, Tennessee got very little out of the deal, which is why I wouldn't call
it a pork barrel project. The legislature, in fact, tried to stop the project.
Land for the impoundment was taken at the tax appraisal value (typically about
30% of market at that time). Huge areas of land surrounding the impoundment were
also taken by TVA. TVA is now selling the lakefront pieces off to developers and
leasing the remainder back to the original owners.

Tellico has basically turned out to be a massive real estate deal and little
else. Of the original claims for "improvement", the only thing that has happened
is that trout have been replaced by bass and canoes by bass boats.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.