More on DC Metro Wasting our Tax Dollars

As the Washington Examiner reports today even Sen Mikulski (D-MD)is slamming the management of the DC Metro. Looks like the only thing that the Metro is competent to do right now is waste more tax dollars on lobbyist.

Normally we would not be following Local News of the District but in this case it concerns our taxpayer dollars as we pointed out yesterday.

Taxpayers should demand a complete and independent audit of how our US Tax Dollars are spent in the District of Columbia. Nothing seems to ever gets better even though millions and millions of dollars flow into DC from the Federal Government.

Washington Examiner Local News

Mikulski slams Metro's management in Senate hearing
Sen. Barbara Mikulski criticized Metro in congressional testimony on Thursday for paying "lip service" to riders' concerns about safety since the summer's deadly train crash.
"Metro is facing some serious problems. Yes, they need money. They remind me constantly," the Maryland Democrat said. "But I think they need more rigorous management."

Details on federal transit oversight plan questioned
A federal plan to regulate transit agencies in the wake of Metro's deadly train crash is raising questions about how it would actually work.
The need for tougher oversight hasn't been doubted, but congressional leaders and transit experts have asked about the cost, how quickly it could begin and the penalties against such a diverse set of systems.

Metro hires Hill lobbyists for $200,000 (District of Columbia)

The fact that DC spends this amount of money for lobbyists should make all US taxpayers disgusted as it is our tax dollars at work. We are not sure we have all the money that the District of Columbia gets from the Federal Government as we could not find a listing except in the Congressional Bill but here is what we have found so far:

Federal Money Appropriated in the `District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 2009'

Federal Payment for Resident Tuition Support: $35,100,000
Federal Payment for Emergency Planning and Security Costs in the District of Columbia: $39,177,000
Federal Payment to District of Columbia Courts: $248,409,000
Defender Services in the District of Columbia: $52,475,000
improvements for District of Columbia courthouse facilities: $76,076,000
Federal Payment to the Court Services and Offender Supervisor Agency: $203,490,000
Federal Payment to the District of Columbia Public Defender: $35,659,000
Federal Payment to the District of Columbia Water and Sewer: $16,000,000
Federal Payment to the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council: $1,774,000
Federal Payment to the Chief Financial Office of District of Columbia: $4,887,622
Federal Payment for School Facilities: $54,000,000
Federal Payment to Jump Start School Reform: $20,000,000
Federal Payment for Consolidated Laboratory Facility: $21,000,000
Federal Payment for Central Library and Branch Locations: $7,000,000
Federal Payment to the Office of Mayor of the District of Columbia: $3,387,500
General Fund of the District of Columbia: operating expenses for the District of Columbia for fiscal year 2009 under this heading shall not exceed the lesser of the sum of the total revenues of the District of Columbia for such fiscal year or $9,888,095,000 (of which $6,082,474,000 shall be from local funds (including $420,119,000 from dedicated taxes), $2,177,382,000 shall be from Federal grant funds, $1,621,929,000 shall be from other funds, and $6,310,000 shall be from private funds)

The amount of money that is given to DC for the Court system is mind boggling. Is there that much crime in DC? If there is, maybe they should be hiring more police with the money.

Also why are American taxpayers funding DC students to attend school any place in America?

No wonder DC has a million dollars to spend on lobbyist with all the money they get from the Federal Government.

Metro hires Hill lobbyists for $200,000

Metro has hired a top lobbying firm for $200,000 to represent the transit agency on Capitol Hill.

That's on top of the more than $900,000 in salaries the agency pays to its nine-person, in-house, government relations staff, not including their employee benefits and other department expenses.

Still, Metro says the more than $1 million it spends to pay people to finesse its relationships with government is worth the cost, even as the agency is facing a tight budget squeeze with a projected $175 million shortfall next year in its $1.4 billion operating budget.

"If you look at the money they end up bringing in ... it's a bargain," Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. "It more than pays for itself."