Kleinheider announced that Drew Johnson and the Tennessee Center for Policy Research – in conjunction with Citizens Against Government Waste – have released their fourth annual “Pork Report”, which details over $500 million in government waste, fraud, and abuse. From their release statement:

NASHVILLE – The 2009 Tennessee Pork Report, released today, exposes over $500 million in waste, fraud and abuse of tax dollars. Authored by the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, Tennessee’s free market think tank, in partnership with Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s premier taxpayer watchdog, the 2009 Tennessee Pork Report is the only extensive examination of the waste of taxpayers’ money committed by politicians and bureaucrats at all levels of government in Tennessee.

In total, the Pork Report uncovers nearly 100 examples of wasteful and questionable spending by state and local governments, including $7.4 million to finance government-approved art, including a grant to an author of sex novels and support for a film festival showing “porn-influenced sexual encounters,” and $482,572 to fund the “Barge to Nowhere,” a ferry that carries fewer than 17 passengers per day.
Other examples of questionable expenditures include:
•    $9 million for the “Party Bunker,” an underground entertainment facility buried in the front yard of the Governor’s Mansion;
•    $6.5 million to “eradicate” boll weevils, even though Tennessee’s cotton fields are already more than 99 percent free of the pest.
•    $2.3 million to bailout 11 insolvent state-owned golf courses;
•    $1 million to study mice genes; and
•    $39,816 to pay for phone lines in state offices that went unused.
“The government waste uncovered in the Pork Report shows a blatant disregard for taxpayers and their hard-earned money,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson. “By rooting out the waste, fraud and abuse of tax dollars uncovered in the Pork Report, Tennessee’s policymakers have an opportunity to show their commitment to responsible spending and address the state’s budget shortfall.”

The full report can be read here.