Hernando Today
Brown-Waite Seeks $29 Million For Projects
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Published: March 27, 2008
BROOKSVILLE - If U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite has her way, Brooksville will get millions of dollars in federal money to fix its aged water and sewer pipes, a chunk of land near a Citrus County spring will be preserved for posterity, and two engineering firms will get millions to develop military technology.
These are a few of the 10 Congressional funding requests the Brooksville Republican has made for the 2009 fiscal year. The requests, called earmarks, total more than $29 million.
"These are the top priorities submitted to her" of nearly 40 such requests, said Charlie Keller, Brown-Waite's spokesman.
The City of Brooksville would receive $4.33 million dollars for sewer and wastewater infrastructure. It's the sole Hernando County project on the list.
"We were ecstatic she'd be willing to sponsor this project," said City Council member Lara Bradburn. It's the first time Brown-Waite has sponsored the city's request for its ongoing efforts to improve its water system.
Brown-Waite, whose 5th District includes Citrus, Hernando and Sumter counties and parts of Lake, Levy, Marion, Pasco and Polk counties, also is seeking $5.6 million for the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife to purchase a 57-acre tract of land abutting Three Sisters Spring in Citrus County.
The property, which includes 11 acres of wetlands and an acre of underwater land that features a spring, is near existing manatee protection areas and, according to Brown-Waite's funding request, its purchase would help ensure the sea cows' safety.
A sizeable portion of the total funds are for defense-related projects.
The largest is a $7 million request to help a Pasco County firm develop laser materials used by the U.S. Department of Defense. VLOC, Inc. in New Port Richey manufactures the polycrystalline used to deploy advanced, near-infrared laser systems. The lasers are used for weapons guiding and tracking.
Brown-Waite also wants $4.5 million for Pall Aerospace to produce equipment for U.S. Army cargo helicopters.
The company is headquartered in New York but has a facility in New Port Richey. Pall would use the money to research and develop lighter engine air particle separators for the helicopters. The separators protect the engines from contaminants.
And Brown-Waite seeks $3 million for the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine's Center for Learning Excellence and the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. The money would be used to research spinal cord injuries and treatment as part of the Project Battlefield and Combat Related Spinal Cord Injury Research program. Researchers study the battlefield injuries of returning veterans and active military members as well as non-military patients.
Here's a rundown of the rest of Brown-Waite's earmarks:
• $2.1 million to Lake County purchase an 800 megahertz radio system and for equipment and technology for its Emergency Operations Center.
• $2 million for Saint Leo University's School of Continuing Education program. The money would be used to continue the tele-learning program and connect students throughout the country and at military bases around the world to Saint Leo's distance education program.
• $1 million for the Citrus County Board of County Commissioners to address stormwater runoff from U.S. Highway 19. The county needs to build infrastructure to collect the runoff to protect wetlands in Homosassa.
• $300,000 for the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences Shellfish Aquaculture Development Program. The money would fund multi-disciplinary research into struggling aquaculture programs throughout Florida.
• $100,000 for the Levy County Sheriff's Office Drug Task Force. The money would be used for equipment and new staff members to, according to Brown-Waite's request, "fight a growing drug trade in the region and help reduce crime."
David Williams, vice-president for Citizens Against Government Waste in Washington, praised Brown-Waite for making her list public. Not all members of Congress do so, he said. Brown-Waite, in fact, did not until last year.
But while most of the projects seem to be laudable, Williams said, they still must be considered the kind of "pork-barrel spending" that helps add billions to the budget.
He pointed to the defense research requests: "Everyone complains that the Pentagon is strapped these days and this is one of the reasons."
The budget balloons because of earmarks, he said, and despite talk of an earmark moratorium, members of Congress continue to include them.
However, with an ever-tightening budget and a new administration, "this really may be a like a letter requesting a pony from Santa Claus," he said.
Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.
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