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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Boyda puts in requests for Kansas, Ryun reminds us he wouldn't

Congresswoman Nancy Boyda followed her own example and again released her full list of earmark requests- while challenging every single other member of the Kansas delegation to do the same thing.

These aren't the projects Boyda has received funding for- these are just the projects that local governments and police departments all over the district have asked her to ask for in the federal budget.

The full list can be found here.

The other side is going to scream "pork-barrel projects," but Kansans know the truth: these aren't fluff, these aren't some pie-in-the-sky project, these are deeply necessary, gravely important funding issues that many of these city's have no other way to obtain.

Boyda, who is running for re-election this year, seeks $2.5 million for planning a new section of the Interstate 70 viaduct through Topeka. The Kansas Department of Transportation is interested in options to a curved 45 mile per hour zone that has recorded 122 crashes, including 44 injury accidents, in the past dozen years.

Boyda also recommended $1.6 million to buy land and design a redevelopment project on the Kansas River near the Great Overland Station and $1.5 million for water and sewer improvements near Heartland Park Topeka.

Smaller Topeka projects are: $834,000 to restore Constitution Hall, $500,000 for a Children's Discovery Center in Gage Park and $250,000 to study restoration of the former Wanamaker wetlands.

Thousands for local police forces, thousands for infrastructure improvements- the list is filled with all the sorts of things Congress should be paying for and the sorts of things that could benefit tens of thousands of Kansans everyday.

Jim Ryun is quoted in this same article, and the juxtaposition is just devastating- for him. Boyda has just announced the works she is doing on behalf of the district- and the work she is doing on earmark reform, and Ryun is quoted saying he'll not ask for a dime- even though he always used to- because we're in an earmark "crisis."

A crisis he let happen on his watch. He always leaves that part out.

Congresswoman Boyda didn't this time- and good for her for saying something.

Boyda said local communities support the earmarking process. She received a joint letter from the city of Topeka and the Topeka Chamber of Commerce urging her to oppose an earmark moratorium.

She said Ryun was a member of the Republican-led Congress that increased earmarks 285 percent from 1994 to 2005, climbing to 15,877 from 4,126. She said Congress last year cut earmarked funding by one-third below the previous year.

"I have been a strong advocate for transparency," Boyda said. "It was the lack of transparency that created the crisis that Mr. Ryun pointed to."

Boyda announced she is proposing a bill that would require every member of Congress to follow her lead and make all earmark requests public. It will probably fail. Why? Because we have too many members of Congress like Jim Ryun, who talk the talk, but when pencil comes to paper, they refuse to actually do the right thing.

For more witty analysis on this very subject , visit our friends over at Left Brain Kansas.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

good for boyda...and when will jim ryun just give up?

Anonymous said...

Anne won't let him.

Anonymous said...

Anne won't let him.

that's f'ing hilarious

Anonymous said...

Its true through, she won't let him. Didn't she use to have her own desk in his office?

Anonymous said...

Ha! Ha! That's funny.
I heard Steve Boyda was keeping with tradition and has his own desks in both Nancy's DC and district offices. And that he makes a lot of the decisions in the Boyda camp. Having seen him on the campaign trail, seems like it could be true.

Anonymous said...

Did Boyda make her political quid pro quo kickbacks public as well? In other words, "I made this earmark and got X number of dollars for my campaign." Maybe I missed it, seems like that should be in there as well.
Seems like a half-assed effort in light of Ryun's earmark pledge. Maybe Nancy is still doing her focus groups on the issue. . . .

Anonymous said...

Campaign finance reports can be found online actually. It's not very difficult.

Anonymous said...

No, Steve does not have a desk in any of Nancy's offices (and there are three of them, twit).

And since Boyda hasn't had any quid pro quo kickbacks, she'd have nothing like that to report.

Anonymous said...

Was it in response to Ryun's press release when she did the same thing in 2007?

Anonymous said...

Was it in response to Ryun's press release when she did the same thing in 2007?

um...what?

Anonymous said...

You say that her announcing her requests was just a political response to Ryun's press release, but she did the same thing in 2007, back when Ryun still thought Earmarks were dreamy.

This blog is not affiliated in any way with the Kansas Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, the Office of Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, or the campaign to re-elected Congresswoman Nancy Boyda. All commentary herein not directly attributed must be considered the opinion of the authors of this blog and not of any other individual, including Congresswoman Nancy Boyda.