The Legislature: Roll Out the Barrel

The House and Senate have yet to replace the fabled Budget Digest, which "recommended" millions of dollars worth of spending on hundreds of projects and causes each year. Lawmakers opted to junk this vehicle in 2006 to avoid a lawsuit challenging their spending priorities.

Critics considered it a form of political pork, though supporters argued it lacked the force of law and earmarked but a fraction of the state's general revenue and lottery-funded budgets.

Another sort of pork-barrel politicking could be on the chopping block this session: the grants that public officials pass out, in front of crowds and cameras, around election time. The Associated Press' Tom Breen reports on legislation that would ban that practice.