Published: April 23, 2006 12:24 am      

Porkbusters pick on wrong project

Self-appointed government watchdogs are having a field day with the proposed relocation of the CSX railroad tracks along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

U.S. Sens. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, both R-Miss., are seeking $700 million in federal funds for the project, which could be debated as early as this week as part of a supplemental appropriations bill pending in the Senate.

Groups like the conservative Heritage Foundation and Porkbusters — as well as a handful of congressmen — have made the project a poster child in their campaign against wasteful federal spending. We won’t argue that so-called pork-barrel politics is a huge problem in this country — and partly responsible for the federal government’s massive debt load that will be shouldered by American taxpayers for generations to come.

But pork, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And what outside interest groups may see as a waste of taxpayer dollars is, by a more objective analysis, a worthy, responsible federal investment that could significantly lessen the dollar damage caused by future hurricanes on the Coast.

Gov. Haley Barbour, in an informal lunch meeting Friday with a handful of Mississippi newspaper editors, made a persuasive case for the CSX railroad location. If the railroad, located about three city blocks inland, is moved to existing tracks further north, the current CSX right-of-way could be used for construction of a critical east-west thoroughfare that would take pressure off the current U.S. 90, which runs along the beach.

The new highway would allow for quicker, safer evacuations of coastal residents during hurricanes. More important, it would push commercial development — except for casinos and other massive structures — off the beach, where small buildings like gift shops and restaurants are sitting ducks in the event of a major hurricane like Katrina. The further inland a building, the less damage it incurs during a storm. And the fewer the number of buildings damaged or destroyed, the lighter the federal government’s recovery tab after a storm.

The current U.S. 90 would become a scenic byway, making the beachfront less congested and more aesthetically and environmentally friendly.

The protests of anti-porkers notwithstanding, moving the railroad tracks and building a new highway makes good sense, both for the Coast and for American taxpayers. Congress should approve the $700 million.