Nobody was complaining about pork-barrel politics during the groundbreaking of a new Kansas Air Guard/National Guard joint training facility Friday morning at Smoky Hill Weapons Range nine miles southwest of Salina.
“We were happy to secure taxpayer funding,” said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who was instrumental in getting the $9 million for the project through Congress. “This is an earmark; earmarks are not all bad. We get ’em for Kansas, for the help of Kansas, and this is something that I think is important for us to do for us to be able to move forward as a state and to take care of the needs that we have.”
Another $3.4 million in earmark spending has passed for related projects at the weapons range, Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., told a shivering crowd of about 70 people during the groundbreaking ceremony. Those funds, which Moran championed, included $2.4 million for establishing urban training operations and $1.1 million for refurbishing and expanding Smoky Hill’s operations facility.
“These other earmarks have already been approved by Congress,” Moran said. “On my way over here I was talking with (Kansas Air National Guard commander) Gen. Flora, and the general said, ‘This may be pork, but it’s tenderloin.’ ”
Moran and Brownback were joined by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to celebrate the beginning of the Air Guard training facility and the completion of the first phase of a nearby project, an area set up to create real-life scenarios so that emergency responders and the National Guard can do disaster training.
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