Wasteful Spending 2008
Federal Spending (source)
- $9.4 million federal grant to Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) in California to search for Aliens.
- $367,000 misspent federal funds on inflatable alligator and under-the-sea waterslides in Texas.
- $350,000 for FCC-sponsored NASCAR events to promote the digital television transition.
- $42 million to mail postcards to all taxpayers to inform them their federal stimulus checks would be arriving soon
- $49,000 grant given to Woodbridge Township, NJ to create a mobile museum highlighting that “George Washington Slept Here”
- $100,000 grant to the University of California at Irvine to study the difference between American and Chinese video game habits
Closer Look at State Spending
Examples of Government Waste in state where alcohol taxes have been introduced or passed
- Illinois (source)
- $550,000 for the conservation of pheasants
- $4 million to build a Ford Technical Training Center
- Washington (source)
- $1.5 million to put decorative lights on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
- $9.6 million worth of waste found in audit of Washington Ferries
- Minnesota (source)
- $1 million for a replica of a Viking ship in Moorhead, MN
- $30 million for bear exhibits at the Minnesota and Como Zoos
- Tennessee (source)
- $6.5 million for boll weevil eradication—even though the pests no longer threaten Tennessee’s cotton crops
- $1.2 million to fund a ferry service used by an average of 23 people per day
- California
