The Hill's big appetite for pork

Public interest groups who plunge into the minutiae of spending or tax bills to find earmarks say it's often difficult to recognize when a lawmaker has written a special provision into a bill. Special projects are those that bypass normal budgetary processes: They haven't been requested by the president or an authorizing committee or vetted in congressional hearings. They usually serve only a local or special interest. Many appear in the text of a bill just hours before lawmakers vote.

"We often don't find them until well after the bill becomes a law," says Keith Ashdown, vice president of policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense.

The corporate tax bill grew, he says, as backers added earmarks in an effort to break a Democratic logjam. "You do need sweeteners on a bill to make it move," Mr. Ashdown says, but this one "has greased a mass of critical palms"

One of the least obvious - and most curious - earmarks in the Senate version of the corporate tax bill is Section 603(b), which simply nullifies a previous tax break written into the 1986 Tax Reform Act. This "technical correction" in the tax code is a critical outcome for developers who hope to convert the historic Warrior Hotel in downtown Sioux City into low-income housing for the elderly. "This building is going nowhere until that changes," says Lance Ehmcke, an attorney for the Warrior Hotel Project Group.

Ironically, this earmark is needed to fix the effect of a previous earmark that the group managed to get written into the tax code in 1986, which specifically exempted the Warrior Hotel and 46 other buildings from a decrease in the historic tax credit program. At the time, it looked like a boon. Only years later did developers learn that that change prevented the project from also using low-income tax credits - now a showstopper for needed financing.

"We've been working on getting a correction for three years," says owner Lewis Weinberg. "It's been a very expensive process."

But the benefit wouldn't just go to the Warrior Hotel. The Joint Tax Committee estimates the provision could cost $94 million over 10 years, as other development projects take advantage of it.

Meanwhile, critics say the preponderance of pork is sinking prospects for the bill. In the House, the bill is stalled by a dispute among Republicans over whether more tax breaks are needed for domestic manufacturers. On the Senate side, Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona is working to force pork out of the bill before it comes up for a vote.

"I have deep reservations about voting for this bill," says Sen. Judd Gregg (R) of New Hampshire, another fiscal conservative. "It's got all sorts of cats and dogs attached to it, but it's a train leaving the station, and there are very few of them left. Clearly, they can scale it back."

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