Aquarium? How about pork barrel

Editorial by Wilmington Star-News, October 13, 2017.

A brand new state run aquarium in Pender County -- barely 30 miles as the crow flies from the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher -- probably doesn’t rank high among the hopes and dreams of the area’s residents.

We commoners obviously lacked Vision, unlike our elected legislators.

Last week, while tinkering with the North Carolina budget, the General Assembly passed a provision to spend nearly $254,000 on paying architects to draw up plans and specifications for a “satellite” aquarium on private land in Scotts Hill.

The item was snuck in originally by former Rep. Chris Millis, and expanded upon in a conference committee vote at the instigation of Rep. Holly Grange and Sen. Tom Rabon.

As with a lot of Great Ideas in the new, improved Republican legislature, there was hardly any debate, public hearing or committee action. (One wonders why they bother having committees anymore.)

Now, the private land lies on a farm in Scotts Hill, just north of the New Hanover-Pender line. Said farm is being developed as a suburb, with houses, offices and shop space, by Trask Land Co.

Well off the coast and not near any municipality, the tract might seem an odd location for a tourist attraction. But it would certainly add value to the lots.

The Trask family, of course, are generous donors to political campaigns of both parties, but there is absolutely no evidence that this had anything to do with the Honorables’ deliberations. Oh, no, not at all.

The money will likely be followed by millions in construction costs, sucking resources from the state’s three other aquariums. Plans call for it to focus on shellfish.

The Department of Natural and Cultural Resources did not ask for this aquarium. (Millis says he “consulted” with Secretary Susi Hamilton on the project, but written record of that consultation consists of one “thank you in advance” email.)

If this had passed back when Democrats had a majority, Republicans would undoubtedly be denouncing it as a pork-barrel boondoggle. Ah, but times are different now.

This is yet another example of the shenanigans that go on when members of the party in power are protected from the voters’ wrath by gerrymandering.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/opinion/20171013/editorial-oct-13-aquarium-how-about-pork-barrel