Reading the Budget Boondoggle Awards posted on your site, I found myself disaggreeing with issues like Arts funding but generally understanding how such things could be considered non-essential. However, I was shocked and disappointed at the passage claiming that bike paths are cosmetic and should not be funded (p 3).

Traffic in US cities grows worse and worse, our population grows fatter and less healthy, costing tax payers money for health care, and our air is filled with pollutants -- to say nothing of global warming. We need to take approaches like bicycling (and public transportation) seriously and create models of responsible, healthy, efficient urban planning that includes human-powered transportation. Bridge collapses are spectacular, punctuated, politically salient issues, but public and environmental health is far more important in the long term.