What Does a Pork Project Cost Your State?

Many people look at federal pork projects with the attitude of "as long as I get mine." This attitude almost presupposes that the federal money for these projects grows on trees. In fact that money for these projects comes from hard earned federal tax dollars collected from each state in the Union.

I was curious about how much my state of Massachusetts would have to pay for pork projects like the $223 million bridge to nowhere in Alaska (answer - $6.24 million would come out of the pocket of Massachusetts taxpayers). Below you can find a list of what percentage of every dollar collected in federal tax revenues comes from each state (as shown by how many cents out of each tax dollar).

Conversely, using the below information I find that the citizens of Tennessee are expected to pay almost $27,000 towards building a $1.4 million Bass River Park Gateway in Dennis, MA. Not sure if many folks from Tennessee will make it to Cape Cod but at least $27,000 of their tax dollars sure are thanks to pork projects like the Bass River Park Gateway (I've lived my whole life in Massachusetts and I've never heard of the Bass River).

If you want to figure out how much a pork project will cost the taxpayers of your state just take the total cost of the project and multiply that by the number next to your state. For example you could take a $1 million Robert Byrd pork project (just pick any one of them) and find that of that $1 million going to waste in West Virginia $117,000 came from the folks in California ($1 million x $.117).

Alabama - $.009 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Alaska - $.0015 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Arizona - $.013 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Arkansas - $.011 out of every $1 in taxes collected
California - $.117 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Colorado - $.017 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Connecticut - $.02 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Delaware - $.006 out of every $1 in taxes collected
District of Columbia - $.008 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Florida - $.051 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Georgia - $.03 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Hawaii - $.003 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Idaho - $.003 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Illinois - $.053 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Indiana - $.017 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Iowa - $.008 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Kansas - $.008 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Kentucky - $.008 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Louisiana - $.011 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Maine - $.003 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Maryland - $.02 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Massachusetts - $.028 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Michigan - $.03 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Minnesota - $.03 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Mississippi - $.004 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Missouri - $.017 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Montana - $.0016 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Nebraska - $.007 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Nevada - $.007 out of every $1 in taxes collected
New Hampshire - $.004 out of every $1 in taxes collected
New Jersey - $.045 out of every $1 in taxes collected
New Mexico - $.003 out of every $1 in taxes collected
New York - $.088 out of every $1 in taxes collected
North Carolina - $.027 out of every $1 in taxes collected
North Dakota - $.0013 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Ohio - $.043 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Oklahoma - $.013 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Oregon - $.009 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Pennsylvania - $.042 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Rhode Island - $.004 out of every $1 in taxes collected
South Carolina - $.0075 out of every $1 in taxes collected
South Dakota - $.0017 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Tennessee - $.019 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Texas - $.075 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Utah - $.005 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Vermont - $.0016 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Virginia - $.024 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Washington - $.02 out of every $1 in taxes collected
West Virginia - $.0024 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Wisconsin - $.017 out of every $1 in taxes collected
Wyoming - $.0014 out of every $1 in taxes collected

The numbers are via the Tax Policy Center and are for 2005. The numbers have been rounded to make them easier to work with.