Constructions crews officially broke ground on the new North Carolina Veterans Park this week, a state park that will be located in downtown Fayetteville not far from the Airborne and Special Operations Museum. I like parks, especially historical ones. However, I can't but feel slightly uneasy about the park's $1.4 million dollar pricetag. Where does that money come from?

The answer: tax payers from around the state (and around the country because part of the funding is federal) are the financiers of the operation. Did they take a vote on whether spending $1.4 million on a state park to benefit Fayetteville during a time of economic recession and 10% unemployment is a good idea? No. Did they contract out to small local construction companies who have been hit the hardest by the economic downturn? No. They contracted to a California-based company (ValleyCrest Landscape Development), with satellite offices in Durham and Charlotte.

Don't get me wrong, ValleyCrest is a great company and are perfectly capable of doing the job. But is sending wealth and taxpayer dollars out of the state really the best plan for North Carolina recovery? What this boils down to is that it is a pork project. Fayetteville/Cumberland County wanted a park built locally to make things look pretty for the new arrivals from BRAC. The a legislator in Raleigh wanted to make sure that for his vote, ValleyCrests office in Durham got the contract. Everybody wins right?

Well, no. The taxpayers lose. In the end Fayetteville will have a new, pretty park. But the money will trickle to California, very few jobs will be created as a result of the project, small regional landscaping businesses will still not get the extra work, and taxpayers who don't want a new state park are getting one anyway. The only winners are the council members and state legislators who use the project to tout their work for the state.

Politics as usual.