Watchdogs: Temple for Ted Kennedy built with pork
John Kerry, Edward Markey request millions in public funds
By Renee Dudley Sunday, April 18, 2010
http://www.bostonherald.com
The amount of taxpayer money being funneled to a Dorchester shrine to the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has ballooned to $38 million and could rise to at least $68 million this year, infuriating watchdog groups who insist the project should be privately funded.
With $38.3 million in federal earmarks already secured for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, Sen. John F. Kerry and Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Malden) have in recent days tapped the government for $30 million more in the next budget.
The new taxpayer-funded total would cover the full $60 million estimated cost of building the project, adjacent to John F. Kennedy Presidential Library at Columbia Point. And it would put the public on the hook for nearly half the project’s $150 million target.
“If the Kennedy family wants to honor the family they should find a way to fund it themselves,” said David E. Williams of Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington nonprofit group.
“They should be looking for private funding,” he said. “They’re using federal taxpayers as the funder of first resort. We need to be the funder of last resort.”
Williams and other critics called it “ridiculous” and an “egregious waste” that supporters want to siphon $28.9 million of the funding from the Defense Department budget alone. Nearly $19 million of that is already signed into law.
“It’s hard to fathom the defense-related portion of this project,” said Steve Ellis, a vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a fiscal watchdog group.
Tax subsidy defended
Peter Meade, president of the planned institute, defended the use of tax dollars and the defense money, saying the project would include programs geared for children of active military personnel.
“That’s where Congress chose to do it, and we’re grateful to them for it,” Meade said.
Markey and Kerry also defended the project’s growing cost, saying it could draw tourists to Boston. Both declined to respond to criticism of earmarks for the center.
The institute “will serve as a national resource, helping Americans learn more about the Senate’s vital place in our democratic system and the historic leading role that the late Senator Kennedy played during his decades of outstanding service to Massachusetts and to the nation,” Markey spokesman Daniel Reilly said in a statement.
It will be “an invaluable resource for citizens from the commonwealth to California,” he said.
A Kerry spokeswoman said in a statement that the institute will bring “knowledge and good citizenship to thousands of young people” and that Kerry is “proud that he worked with his colleagues last year to help make it a reality.” Williams said their support for the project equated with support for pork-type spending.
“Markey and Kerry understand that Kennedy is a beloved figure in Massachusetts and that it is sacrilege to speak ill of this,” he said. “But it’s still pork-barrel spending and not something federal taxpayers should be paying for.”
The institute, to be built adjacent to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum near the University of Massachusetts at Boston campus, “will be dedicated to educating the public, students, teachers, new senators and Senate staff about the role and importance of the Senate,” according to its Web site, emkinstitute.org.
Taxpayer watchdog Ellis compared the institute to presidential libraries, which generally are privately funded.
“Considering the interest and affection for Sen. Kennedy, this could be independently funded and doesn’t need to be getting taxpayer dollars,” he said.
Meade said the center will not be a library but an “educational institute that’s a part of UMass-Boston.” He added: “Those kinds of organizations receive public money regularly.” He said he is “mindful of budget problems” at the federal level, and agreed it is “somewhat unusual” for a project affiliated with a state university to seek private money at all.
He said in an e-mail that the institute has secured $45 million in private donations and pledges. He did not respond to an e-mail asking how much of that was in hand. He said most of the funding would come from private donors, but declined to say what the public-private split would be.
Construction in October
The institute will house Kennedy’s papers and memorabilia from more than four decades in the Senate. It will include a museum, reception area, library and classrooms, according to its Web site. It will host mock Senate sessions and programs for high school and college students and incoming senators and their staffs.
Meade said plans are being finalized and renderings are not being made available to the public. Construction is to begin in October and take two and a half years, he said.
The project has gotten $38.3 million in federal earmarks in less than two years, according to data compiled by LegiStorm, a nonpartisan group that tracks congressional spending information.
That figure includes $5.81 million that Kerry and five other senators backed in the fiscal 2009 education budget. Two federal spending bills passed in December, one for defense and the other for education, included another $32.5 million for the institute. Kerry and Markey were among the members of Congress who requested those funds.
Kerry seeks even more
Kerry requested an additional $10 million late last week, his spokeswoman, Brigid O’Rourke, said in an e-mail Friday afternoon.
Markey made his most recent requests on March 20, according to two letters he wrote to the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations. The first $10 million would come from the defense appropriations bill, the second $10 million from the spending bill for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, a Markey spokesman confirmed in an e-mail.
Markey’s letters say the money “would be used for program development” and in support of “the primary goal” of the institute - “to improve civics education and engagement in this country.”
Williams criticized the vague description of how the millions would be spent. “The lack of information is typical,” he said. “There is no detail about project phases or what the money goes toward. The point is to get the ball rolling and to move the project down the road one more step.”
In many cases, initial funding pays for architectural planning or research, Williams said. “They get it started and hope it gets far enough down the road that they can’t stop the funding,” he said.
Added Ellis: “Will this be a long-term commitment? Every year, will we be giving $10 million?”
Ellis blasted the slipping of earmarks for the project into two bills where they can be easily hidden.
“It’s a really big bill,” he said of the Department of Defense budget. “$10 million does not stick out in Defense.”
“This earmark has nothing to do with defending the country,” said Williams. Lt. Cmdr. Kathleen Kesler, a Defense Department spokeswoman, refused to comment.
Submitting a request as large as those sought for the Kennedy Institute doesn’t mean a member of Congress will get the full amount. However, Ellis suggested it is more likely to be filled than other requests, because it “pulls at the heartstrings because it’s for the late senator.”
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Ted Kennedy Temple Being Built with Pork, Taxpayers Fund $68million in Defense Funds
Nice try there but you fail.