May 28 2008
Is He Trying to Buy a Chunk of Tennessee?
Sen. Walter Dalton is seeking more than $277 million in state spending.
The Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor has sponsored nine bills and co-sponsored 18 bills seeking appropriations in the upcoming state budget. A longtime state senator, he is serving an advisory role on the budget in the short session.
What the hell could you possibly spend $277 million dollars on???
Dalton is the primary sponsor on bills totaling $208 million: $135 million for grants for local water and sewer projects, $20 million for the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center, $16 million for stem cell research, $14 million for the Cleveland Correctional Center, $10 million to provide services for the developmentally disabled, $5.8 million to help provide high-speed Internet access, $3 million for biotechnology training, $2.5 million for construction at historically black colleges and $2 million for small business entrepeneurship initiatives.
Among the larger appropriations bills he is cosponsoring: $44.7 million for Smart Start early childhood intiatives, $9.5 million for 4-H camps, $3 million for home foreclosure prevention, $3 million for loans for biotechnology start-ups, $1.6 million for a dropout prevention program in Durham and Vance counties, $1.4 million for water resource management and $1.25 million for biotechnology education.
It’s so easy to spend money when it belongs to someone else, isn’t it? This sort of waste is so God-awful disgraceful, it ought to disqualify Dalton from running for Lt. Governor of Drunken Sailor-Land, let alone North Carolina. Maybe, maybe, there are some legitimate government expenditures in there, like the $2.5 million for construction at historically black colleges (if they’re state schools). But how many of these projects can be accomplished through the private sector or personal initiative- especially if we had to pay fewer state taxes?
Here’s the scoop on Dalton’s opponent, State Senator Robert Pittenger-
Former Sen. Robert Pittenger sought $1.9 million in state spending.
The Republican nominee for lieutenant governor cosponsored three bills seeking appropriations in the upcoming state budget before resigning his seat.
Pittenger sought $1.5 million for three pilot career and technical high schools, $385,000 for Kids Voting and $100,000 for a study of the effectiveness of the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
I always kind of liked Dalton because he is fairly conservative for a Democrat, but most of these spending initiatives of his are just wasteful garbage.
[...] Celtic in Election 2008, Govt Waste, North Carolina, Robert Pittenger, Walter Dalton A follow-up to yesterday’s post regarding Sen. Walter Dalton’s rather lavish budget requests- Jerry Meek says a Republican [...]