Topline: Turning 100 years old is a big deal, and it would be reasonable to start planning a birthday party a few months in advance.
Beginning the festivities eight years early is something else entirely, but that’s exactly how the National Park Service spent $25 million in 2008. Never mind the fact that the NPS didn’t actually turn 100 until 2016.
That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses.
Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname "Dr. No" by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn't stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.
Coburn's Wastebook 2008 included 65 examples of outrageous spending worth more than $1.3 billion, including the NPS’ birthday bash, which cost $36.2 million in today’s money.
Key facts: National park centennial programming was funded through private donations matched by the federal government.
Some money went toward ecosystem preservation and climate change research. But for every serious initiative there was one like the two-day “Parkpalooza” at Missouri’s Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, which spent $60,000 on “rock climbing” and “learning how to pack a backpack.”
The New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park received $2 million to build outdoor and indoor stages for its jazz band. Zion National Park in Utah spent $75,000 to hire an “artist-in-residence.”
Meanwhile, the NPS had a $9.6 billion backlog of needed repairs on its properties.
The plan in 2008 was to spend $1 billion on the birthday celebration over the next several years. Thankfully that never happened, but Congress did allocate another $25 million before the actual centennial in 2016
That year, the NPS spent money on events like “Sing Across America,” which “brought young people together to express the human connection to nature through song.”
Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.
Critical quote: "We will continue to raise the question about quid pro quo,” Bill Wade of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees said at the time. "And, we continue to be concerned that these kinds of projects don’t necessarily reflect the highest priority needs of the NPS, because a 'partner' is needed for the matching funding.”
Summary: A simple ice cream cake for the NPS would have saved taxpayers millions of dollars and been much easier for everyone involved.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by CEO & founder, Adam Andrzejewski, with Jeremy Portnoy. Learn more at OpenTheBooks.com.
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