Transparency in Georgia
The State of Georgia has launched Open Georgia, a site that promotes transparency in state government, created with the passage of SB 300 during the 2008 session of the Georgia General Assembly.
The site gives taxpayers access to the budget, salaries of state employees, state expenditures, financial information and reviews of programs.
Looking through the site, a report that caught my eye. It’s an audit of the performance of Georgia’s halls of fame and museums. I went through and put together some of the data in the report and posted it below to give you an idea of how subsidizing these types of endeavors aren’t in the best interest of taxpayers.
This is a moment where my anti-pork beliefs shine through. My apologies.
Let me give a quick explanation of a few of things. “Econ. Impact” is the estimated economic impact of the hall of fame or museum on its community. “State Funding” is money appropriated by the legislature. “Other Revenue” is presumably revenue generated due to sales or admission. “Expenses” are total expenditures. “Total Revenue” is the profit or (losses) of the hall of fame or museum.
Hall of Fame & Museum Performance – FY 2008:
| Econ. Impact | State Funding | Other Revenue | Expenses | Total Revenue | |
| Music Hall of Fame | $1.4 million | $840,466 | $276,809 | $1,463,117 | $(345,842) |
| Sports Hall of Fame | $1 million | $793,344 | $117,044 | $901,645 | $8,743 |
| Golf Hall of Fame | ???? | $75,000 | $226,596 | $391,346 | $(89,750) |
| Aviation Hall of Fame | ???? | $50,000 | $171,935 | $195,888 | $26,047 |
| Agrirama | $1.7 million | $1,177,651 | $390,771 | $1,623,333 | $(54,911) |
| SAM Shortline | $1.6 million | $371,964 | $592,862 | $1,329,587 | $(364,761) |
Five Year Performance – FY 2004 to FY 2008:
| State Funds | Other Revenue | Expenses | Total Revenue | |
| Music Hall of Fame | $3,962,668 | $1,270,479 | $5,505,680 | $(272,532) |
| Sports Hall of Fame | $3,749,221 | $642,866 | 4,563,388 | $(171,301) |
| Golf Hall of Fame | $319,845 | $1,896,719 | $3,565,152 | $(1,348,588) |
| Aviation Hall of Fame | $228,125 | $600,507 | $786,173 | $42,459 |
| Agrirama | $4,894,201 | $1,878,446 | $6,959,143 | $(186,496) |
| SAM Shortline | $1,907,398 | $2,662,418 | $4,914,000 | $(344,185) |
Your tax dollars at work. When this type of pork is criticized, many supporters of these monuments cite the economic benefit to the community. As you can see above, any economic benefit is extremely limited and in some cases the economic benefit is the money appropriated by the legislature. The good thing is that the state may stop funding this madness.
March 14th, 2010 at 11:11 am
[...] you look at recent funding of the state’s various halls of fame, the only real economic impact has been the state’s [...]