Years ago, a major bridge expansion on Long Island was funded with a $5 million congressional earmark, but the project remains untouched and not a penny has been spent.
This is what’s known as a “disappearmark” — projects funded with congressional earmarks that inexplicably hit dead ends and stall for years. The snag ends up costing taxpayers because the idle funds are counted against the state in formulas for other federal aid.
“It highlights the weakness of the earmark system and it’s the kind of thing that makes individual taxpayers crazy,” said Susan Lerner, director of Common Cause NY, a nonprofit good government watchdog.
It turns out there are thousands of projects, stuck in financial purgatory like the Hospital Road bridge. Federal funding was secured years ago, but nothing has happened since.
NBC New York combed through earmarks approved in the $244 billion transportation bill that passed Congress in 2005.
Among the droves of pet projects are more than $600 million in stalled or scrapped New York initiatives — money intended to be spent on transportation projects.
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