NYT : A Congressman’s $10 Million Gift for Road Is Rebuffed

A Congressman’s $10 Million Gift for Road Is Rebuffed

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK | August 18, 2007

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — It is not often that a local government tries to turn down $10 million in federal construction money.

But then it is not every day that an Alaska congressman surprises a Florida community with the gift of a highway interchange that just happens to abut the property of a major political fund-raiser.

The money for the interchange was the work of Representative Don Young, the Alaska Republican who was chairman of the transportation committee before the last election.

Officials of Lee County considered the project a low priority, environmental groups opposed it and the Republican congressman from the district never asked for it.

But the interchange, on Interstate 75 at a place called Coconut Road, would be a boon to Daniel J. Aronoff, a Michigan real estate developer with adjacent property who helped raise $40,000 in donations to Mr. Young at a fund-raiser in the region shortly before Mr. Young inserted an earmark for the project in a transportation bill.

The connections were too much for the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization, said Carla Johnston, its chairwoman and a Democrat.

On Friday, the members of the organization voted overwhelmingly to return the money in the hope that Congress would let them spend it elsewhere in the county.

Adding to the intrigue, a researcher commissioned by Ms. Johnston said Mr. Young had added the earmark for the interchange to a transportation bill after both chambers of Congress had approved it, at a time Congressional aides were cleaning up the bill for President Bush’s signature.

“People were really highly outraged at the process,” Ms. Johnston said. “It was a classic end run.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Young did not return calls for comment.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Aronoff, the developer and fund-raiser, defended the project, saying a study had determined a need for the interchange in a building plan years ago, partly to help with hurricane evaluations.

“Unfortunately, the real story is getting lost in this funding debate,” the spokeswoman, Elizabeth Hirst, said.