Carolina on Taxpayers' Minds
July 24, 2010
by: Dave Williams

Wastewatcher, July, 2010

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) has never been accused of being a fiscal hawk.  In fact, he is quite well known for bringing home the bacon.  CAGW’s 2010 Congressional Pig Book documented 41 earmarks worth $55 million requested by Rep. Clyburn.

That is why it comes as no surprise that a center named after him, the James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center at South Carolina State University, is being audited.

According to the heraldonline.com, “S.C. State University’s board voted unanimously Tuesday [June 29, 2010] to conduct an external audit on the James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center to find out how millions of state and federal dollars have been spent.  The audit will be the first comprehensive review of the center, through which more than $50 million has flowed since it was launched in 1998. S.C. State leaders have about half that money on hand for the building’s first phase. But they’ve been unable to explain where the rest of the money went.  A previous federal audit on one of the center’s programs, the National Summer Transportation Institute, found the university’s financial records in such disarray accountants couldn’t figure out where millions of dollars went.”

Rep. Clyburn is not new to controversy, or wasteful spending.  His two biggest acts of notoriety have been his support of the original Bridge to Nowhere (The Briggs-DeLaine-Pearson Connector in 2005) and airdropping a $3 million earmark for the First Tee golf program into the fiscal year 2008 Department of Defense Appropriations Act conference report.

Clyburn’s bridge is a three-mile span over the Santee River that would connect the state’s rural communities of Rimini in Clarendon County with Lone Star in Calhoun County.  The connector is part of a proposed 9.6-mile road renovation in Rep. Clyburn’s district.  Rep. Clyburn included $25 million for the project in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005, arguing that the bridge would bring economic development to the impoverished area and improve the local school system.

Transportation officials estimate that the proposed bridge will cost taxpayers $110. Rep. Clyburn insists the highest projection he has heard is $79 million and says the final number could be lower.  Given the history of government construction projects, this one will not end up costing less than originally projected.  At $110 million, the connector will cost taxpayers $36.67 million per mile or $6,944 per foot. 

The bridge project first received taxpayer dollars in 1998, when $6.5 million was included for it in the 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.  Since then, $9.2 million has been spent to conduct feasibility and impact studies.  Combined with the recent $25 million, $34.2 million has been wasted on Clyburn’s Bridge to Nowhere .

Rep. Clyburn could have used the federal funds to pay for improvements to existing roads and bridges in the area.  Just 10 miles down the river from the proposed connector site is the 601 bridge, which is in dire need of repair.

Probably the most bizarre earmark was $3 million for the First Tee program air dropped into the FY 2008 Department of Defense Appropriations Act conference report.  First Tee’s mission, according to its website, is “to impact the lives of young people by providing learning facilities and educational programs that promote character development and life-enhancing values through the game of golf.”

Aside from its inappropriate placement in the defense bill, the First Tee funds were not competitively awarded and are certainly not need-based.  The program has enough green to run ads during nationally-televised professional golf events, has corporate sponsorships from Fortune 500 companies, and boasts some of the sport’s heaviest hitting organizations as “Founding Partners,” Augusta National Golf Club, the Ladies Professional Golf Association, the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of America, the PGA Tour, and the United States Golf Association.

On November 8, 2007, Rep. Clyburn defended his wedge of pork on the House floor, “[T]his request was made by me, and my name is attached to it because I’m very, very proud of it.”  The earmark is not the only project with which his name is associated.  In August, 2007, the City of Columbia Golf Center was renamed the James E. Clyburn Golf Center and a statue of him was erected outside the facility.  First Tee has received $7.5 million in earmarks since 2003.

Fast forward to 2010 and the Transportation Center.   According to the heraldonline.com, “The transportation center was once envisioned as a grand complex for transportation research and study.  But the university now plans in the complex’s first phase to house a maintenance garage for buses and an archive for Jim Clyburn’s papers.”