The case of the earmark in Huntington

President criticized them, but one is funding work at the Heckscher Museum

Publication: Newsday.com

Michael Ebert
February 13, 2008

When President George Bush called for a future crack down on pork barrel practices of Congress last week, Erik H. Neil of the Heckscher Museum of Art had mixed feelings.

On one hand, the number and cost of congressional pet projects will be cut in half. But on the other hand, important projects like the digitalization of the museum's collection - which was recently allotted $97,000 through the FY2007 Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations - will be affected due to an "earmark" designation by tax watchdog organizations.

"I personally don't consider our $97,000 appropriation to be pork barrel," said Neil, the museum's executive director, who credits Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY) for helping to secure the funds. "I'm sure there are people that abuse it [earmarks], but this is a real need. If you ask me, there's not enough federal spending on museums and arts to begin with."

Earmarking, a provision in legislation that directs funds to be spent on a specific project or organization within a legislator's home state or district, has expanded significantly in U.S. Congress during recent decades and is presently the focus of controversy. In 1996, for example, there were only 3,055 earmarks compared to a total of 14,211 in 2004, costing more than $52.69 billion, according to the Sunlight Foundation in Washington, DC.

At Heckscher, the $97,000 sum will be used to put online most of the museum's artwork - which includes more than 2,000 nineteenth to twenty-first century European and American art - allowing people to peruse the museum's collection from the comfort of their home. Right now, the museum is about one-third of the way through its digitalization process.

Neil said some studies have reflected that virtualization of museums can increase the interest for students to learn about their collection. In some cases, virtual visitors to museum Web sites out-number physical visitors, according to the non-profit Futurelab.

"Digitialization is something museums didn't need until recent years," said Neil. "Now, it's all part of being a professional museum ... That's why this isn't pork barrel."

Israel echoed those sentiments recently in his online blog, noting his jaw dropped when Republicans "hooped, hollered and pumped their fists" in support of the end of earmarks during Bush's "State of The Union" address on Jan. 28. According to Israel, all but a handful of them had submitted their own requests for millions of dollars of earmarks last year.

"People have the right to disagree about whether a member of Congress should direct funding to his or her district, but they should also consider the Administration includes their own earmarks in the budget that the President requests from Congress each year," said Israel. "I'd like to think I know more about the needs of Long Island than federal bureaucrats sitting in Washington and that our community deserves to get its share of federal resources."