Oklahoma Much Improved in Wasteful Spending Rank

According to the 2006 edition of the Pig Book, published by Citizens Against Government Waste, the state of Oklahoma is one of the best in terms of avoiding wasteful spending. Improving more than 30 spots in the rankings, Oklahoma is now considered a leader in "pork per capita."

The Pig Book

Citizens Against Government Waste is a private, non-partisan and non-profit organization formed in the mid-1980's. Their mission is to "eliminate waste, mismanagement, and inefficiency" in government. With a membership of more than 1 million, GAGW is nationally recognized as a primary source on the documentation of wasteful government spending.

An annual report produced by GAGW, the Pig Book identifies thousands of "pork-barrel" projects in the federal budget. The following are the seven criteria GAGW utilizes to determine what it calls "blatant and egregious" examples of pork:

• Requested by only one chamber of Congress;
• Not specifically authorized;
• Not competitively awarded;
• Not requested by the President;
• Greatly exceeds the President’s budget request or the previous year’s funding;
• Not the subject of congressional hearings; or
• Serves only a local or special interest.

As well as giving an overall view of the pork picture, the annual Pig Book breaks the projects down into a state by state analysis, with awards given and historical trends noted.

Oklahoma's Ranking

In last year's report, Oklahoma occupied a less-than-enviable position at #16 in the ranking of pork per capita. That meant that only 15 states in the nation were worse when it came to wasteful spending dollars per person.

In the 2006 report, however, Oklahoma took a big step forward, improving to #48. As the list counts the District of Columbia as well, the ranking means that only 3 states (Indiana, Georgia and Florida) did a better job of avoiding pork-barrel spending.

The change in ranking from one year to the next marked the best improvement of any state.

Other States

Taking home the "award" for the worst state in terms of wasteful spending for the 2nd year in a row is Alaska, accounting for more than $300 million in pork projects for a population of just over 650,000. Hawaii had a far larger pork total at $482 million but came in #2 on the list thanks to a far larger population of 1.2 million.

Other significant improvements from 2005 to 2006 were seen by South Carolina (improved by 24 positions), Iowa (improved by 18 positions) and Kansas (improved by 16 positions).

The largest changes for the worse included Colorado, Arizona and New York.