North Carolina got $14.4 million in earmarks through David Price (the only North Carolina member of the House Appropriations Committee and Chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee), $13 million of that went to projects Price himself sponsored. Robin Hayes got $1 million for the City of Kannapolis and Heath Shuler got a $400,000 project; each of them faces a difficult reelection fight.
The price of this beneficence? Taxpayers for Common Sense says it was $666 million (spreadsheet). Price says it was a comparative bargain at $424 million, which was 40 percent less than the 2006 Republican bill.
Overall, of $18.3 billion in earmarks in the current budget, North Carolina received $234 million in earmarks and a share of another $100 million in multi-state earmarks. In other words, North Carolinians paid between $55 and $78 for every earmark dollar received.
