TxDOT sitting on $1.2 M that Congressman Earmarked to help a Contributor Build a Road Through Golf Resort

This is par for the course in the corrupt world of Texas politicos being generous with our tax dollars. Pun intended.

Bureaucracy costs everyone more.

TxDOT is sitting on $1.2 million in federal funds that TxDOT may not ever spend, thanks to a special earmark from U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla who wanted to help a contributor build a private road through a golf resort he belonged to, which since has gone bankrupt. The rest of the story is here, in the Houston Chronicle today:

The owner of the resort, Stephen Smith, donated $2,500 to Bonilla's campaigns, and Bonilla owned a membership in the resort — valued as high as $75,000 — that its Web site says is available only to property owners. Bonilla, who was voted out of office in 2006, owns no property in Lajitas.

And, surprise surprise, nobody wants to talk about it:

A call to Smith's cell phone couldn't go through. A call to his bankruptcy attorney, Mark Petrocchi, was not immediately returned.

Several attempts to reach Bonilla through his campaign treasurer were unsuccessful.

And this:

Andrew Wheat, a research director for the nonpartisan watchdog group Texans for Public Justice, said that Bonilla distilled "all that's wrong with American politics into a simple anecdote."

"Every civics textbook in Texas should tell the story of the congressman who services his big donor pals by earmarking a million tax dollars to pave one mile of a remote, desert playground for the rich," Wheat said....

...Since 1999, Smith has donated more than $300,000 to Republicans, according to Federal Election Commission records.

In 2005, Bonilla's American Dream PAC spent more than $17,000 at the resort for a fundraiser, records show.

When you think of Bonilla and his corrupt ways, think of Perry, Krusee, Watson, Williamson and all the other crooks who are cut from the same cloth - who refuse to represent the people, and only look out for themselves.