These are just the earmarks from Thursday's session!

This op-ed piece hits the pitch right out of the park:

SOURCE: Foxpolitics.net
Representative Rick Zipperer (R – Pewaukee) listed the earmarks approved, not in the entire budget so far, but just those approved during the marathon budget session ending at 5:30 a.m. Friday morning. Many of these were considered for the first time just hours before the Finance Committee voted to pass the budget. Zipperer notes that while some of these projects may be worthwhile, they all use your tax money in a way decided by the whims of a handful of politicians in Madison rather than through regular appropriation formulas or a competitive grant process.

Update: In an AP story printed Sunday, prospective earmark recipients defend the state's largesse. Speaking of the $500,000 earmark to renovate the Grand Opera House in Oshkosh, Joseph Ferlo says "I understand why earmarks like this would come under scrutiny. But under that scrutiny, saving a structure of this significance is a reasonable use of discretionary funds."

Discretionary funds? What?

It goes on, with all sorts of defenses. Reading it might get your ire up, especially when you see the cuts coming for municipalities and schools - and the $2B increase in taxes and fees. Grrrr.

Dane County Yahara River $6,600,000
Aids Network & Resource Center of Wisconsin $1,100,000
Manitowoc Road in Village of Bellevue $1,250,000
Bradley Center $5,000,000
Madison Children’s Museum $250,000
Huron Road in Village of Bellevue $100,000
La Crosse Eco Park $500,000
Planning New State Historical Society Museum $4,000,000
Oshkosh Opera House $500,000
Aldo Leopold Climate Change Classroom $500,000
Village of Bagley Flood Study $19,000
Bike Path Facility Grants $5,000,000
County Trunk Highway X, Chippewa County $430,000
City of Racine Road Enhancements $900,000
Reid Road in Town of La Prairie $250,000
Pedestrian Path in Rock County $20,000
Love Incorporated Food Bank $10,000
Union Grove Food Bank $5,000
Rio Area Food Pantry $5,000
Lodi Food Pantry $5,000
Eau Claire County Public Shooting Range $50,000
Root River Education Center $25,000
Beloit Children’s Playground $50,000
Beckman Mill Park in Rock County $10,000
L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire $125,000
Stone Barn Historical Site in Town of Chase $100,000
Restoration of Beloit’s Turtle Island Park $35,000
City of Stanley, Chippewa County $37,500
Begin Planning Highway 12 Expansion in Whitewater
Begin Planning Highway 13 Expansion in Marshfield
Begin Planning New Bridge over the Wisconsin River at Wisconsin Rapids
Begin Redeveloping Highway 16 at Dickeyville

Wow. Add that up. Nearly $27,000,000. Not approved through normal appropriation channels. Tacked on in the dark of night. And this state is $6.6B in the hole?