Sponsor Criticized by Newspaper

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Now while I am most definitely for having the government help fund FIRST teams or events, I'm just cautioning everyone that just because something is "pork", doesn't automatically mean it's bad and should be vetoed and slashed from the budget. There are just as many legitimate pork projects as there are wasteful pork projects. The key thing is being responsible by knowing there is only so much money to go around, and that some legitimate pork projects may have to wait a while before they can get federal/state grants.

$100,000 in state funding is a drop in the bucket compared to what was ultimately spent on this very notable project funded with federal money.

Sometimes good ideas that might benefit a particular community are just too costly and/or inefficiently implemented - I think that justifiably raises the ire of taxpayers, especially those who stand to never benefit from the end results. When you're talking about an "earmark" (the gentler way to describe pork), that's pretty much the vast majority of the taxpaying public.

Relatively smaller earmarks - $100,000 in state funding to support a FIRST regional or $180,000 to support FIRST robotics and STEM expansion within a particular region - aren't going to upset too many people as long as those who are responsible for managing the funds once received do so in a responsible and effective manner.