Central PA Congressman and businesses giving up earmarks

Central Penn Business Journal on the Congressman Pitts and Platts joining those taking a moratorium on earmarks and the response of most business leaders - except the beneficiaries of earmarks:

Not all earmarks fund bridges to nowhere. In fact, more than $10 million has been designated for a train from Lancaster to Harrisburg, said John Ward, president of Modern Transit Partnership, the group leading the Corridor One rail project.

"For a project like ours, that's the only way we can get money, is earmarks," he said. "All of a sudden earmarks become bad. Well, probably 90 percent of them are very valuable."

Also known as "The train no one will ride," Corridor One is a bondoogle, and it isn't surprising at all that the only way it will get money is earmarks, as no competitive grant program - state or federal - would ever consider it a worthy project.